- No patience.
- No will to accept sacrafices.
- No loyalty and unity during wartime.
- No historical perspective.
These are the fundaments for any successful war. People cannot expect to change the Middle East, eradicate WMD, regimes and Terrorists within a couple of years. It takes time. Decades. The Cold War lasted 5 decades. The war against Germany's struggle to become a superpower lasted 3 decades (1914-45). The war between Islam and the rest of the world started some 1300 years ago... People need to be patient, resolute and loyal.And the treasonous media needs to be taught a hard lesson.
HUMINT: I enjoyed this article and I think solidwood's additional context adds real value to the discussion. I'd like to point out several additional things that I think we, the United States needs to have in order to competently facilitate democracy in Iraq - before we run out of blood and treasure.
-
We need to have the ability to identify our enemies in Iraq (our interests are a democratic Iraq and any enemy to that vision should be treated as such). Sadr, among others are not behaving democratically despite their being elected "democratically".
-
We need to have the ability to identify and protect our allies in Iraq (sadly, many of Iraq's finest men and women are being targeted for standing up for the democratic movement spearheaded by the United States)
-
We have to be able to sell the idea to ourselves first and the world second, that we are managing (not leading) a global democratic movement. (The United States is not an empire subjugating Iraqis for their nation's natural resources - however those same resources are still of interest to the US economy)
-
Average Americans have to be able to identify with the Iraqi people in order to sustain this movement and right now, they have barely even met each other. Besides burqas, beards and bombs what do average American now about the people they are spending their blood and treasure to liberate? Not much.
-
The alternative to the point above is also true. Iraqis must be able to identify with Americans, including the face of the movement for a peaceful democratic world, the American Soldier.
We have a long road ahead of us, there is no doubt about that. We have control over some of the conditions on this road but not all of the conditions. Right now, I tend to think we are making the effort harder on ourselves than we have to be. Some believe that is a reason to quit. I believe the American role in the movement for peace and democracy around the world is not negotiable. Quiting that effort would mark the end of our great nation.
