Writing last week, scholar and teacher Victor Davis Hanson has handed out a report card on the war on terror, including Iraq. His assessment: A for strategy, B- for tactics, and a D for message.
Here at home we have not explained the terrible ironies of this war to the American public. More civilians in our cities were incinerated than all the soldiers who have died fighting abroad—and al Qaeda promises a worse toll to come through the unleashing of weapons even more horrible than crashing airliners.Americans do not grasp that should a constitutional government emerge in Iraq, al Qaeda is faced with an enemy far more formidable than the United States. The old false choice between strong-armed dictators and Islamic fascists will start to crumble with a third option that says to the Arab Street: “Look to your own elected government—that is, yourselves—not the United States or Israel, when the sewers back up and the power fails.” So, yes, what happens in the next two or three months is the most critical event since September 11.
We need to accept that our enemy is not a fleet of bombers or subs, but something far more insidious and formidable. He is a stealthy foe that so far has killed more Americans in their home streets than all of Hitler’s Storm Troopers, Tojo’s carriers, or Stalin’s Migs—and more eerily still, with far less furious a response from Americans than was true during the last sixty years.
His conclusion?
Our strategy is still inspired and our military is superb. But we need to let them win and then tell the world why. And if we don’t, we may very well lose.Posted by Alan at May 25, 2004 12:22 PM