Posted by
TommyO on Monday, April 30, 2007 3:06:40 PM
Sent today in response to article by WFB in NRO.
Dear Mr. Buckley:
I understand your point of view on Iraq and the apparent bottomless pit it has become. However, I differ with your reading of the attacks on the populace and our troops as spontaneous. I see them as carefully orchestrated and coordinated elements of a battle plan designed to feed into the Democrat's insatiable hunger for a political victory ala Tet and thereafter (have they found their Walter Cronkite?).
What puzzles me in the debate over Iraq, and the millions of words devoted to the war there, is the isolation of Iraq from the [choose one: GWOT The Long War (your choice here)]. I look at my grandchildren at ages seven and nine and cringe with the thought that in Iraq/out of Iraq now will undoubtedly have severe consequences for them and their generation.
It seems that a hard look at the total impact of Islamic Jihad just does not fit the political climate. There is too much information in such a study to generate a great soundbite for the media, and thus the future does not seem to count.
I have come to believe the BDS not only exists among the left, but it has infected the reasoning power of so many powerful people who, one would believe, should have the capacity to see beyond the local fog of political gain at the expense of our troops and the Iraqi people. Consequently, we muddle in political dreamland and meander blissfully into the undeniable bloodshed of the future.
Where are the alarmists? Where are the leaders?
Time for WFB to come out of retirement and stir the pot. Simply concluding that the war in Iraq is 'lost' or 'unwinnable' without placing the effort in its true context does not serve the national effort.
Where do you stand on the aftermath of withdrawal? Or is the aftermath irrelevant?
Yours truly,
Thomas A O'Reilly
South Portland Maine