I’ll admit, I’ve had this thought a few times in the past couple of days:
It’s the failure of Americans to support the war. It’s the folding and crumpling because things didn’t go well enough and the way we conspicuously displayed that to our enemies. They’re going to use that information.
For how long?
Forever.
But one of her commentors makes a good point.
Ann, it’s not politically realistic to expect the country to support a project like the Iraq war when it has been so mismanaged (2003-4) and so miscommunicated (perpetually). One can be angry, but I don’t think the voters can be blamed much. Besides, I don’t think it was a cut ‘n run message from the voters. More of a “can somebody here work this thing?” message.
And that might be right. But we know, from copious statements and actions, that the Democrats are not going to conduct the war with any vigor either. I might as well wait to see that baby elephant flying above the Big Top before I see this Democrat Congress pushing the President to be more aggressive with the terrorists and the Iranian tools in Iraq.
And yeah, I can blame the voters to a large extent. Regardless of how badly the war was communicated, the reasons for fighting it still remain as valid and have been explained more than adequately more than often enough. The President shouldn’t have to come out and hold our hands every couple months and explain to us one more time why our being in Iraq is good and important, as if we have brain damage.
I can’t imagine FDR getting in front of the cameras every couple of weeks and reminding America why the Nazis and the Japanese had to be defeated. We knew then as we know now why we cannot let tyranny stand – forty years of Robert Gates-like coddling notwithstanding.
We’ve just gotten lazy and that bothers me a great deal. We’ve gotten lazy and complacent and selfish with the incredible gifts we possess.
Can all that be overcome? Can it be reversed? I’m sure it can but it’s going to take some time, some courage, and a few statesmen not afraid to get in our faces and toughen us up.
Finding those people might prove just a little troublesome in today’s Washington.
(h/t: Instapundit)
The voters were assured the Iraq War would be a cakewalk. You can’t blame them that the Bush administration refused to level with anyone re: alternate scenarios to their projected flowers and candy.
And so it was jpe.
And they were greeted as liberators, unless you prefer to call Christpher Hitchens who was there and saw it himself, a liar.
What happenes afterwards, the hard bloody work of acting as bodyguard to a nascent democracy under constant and vicious attack. Well, that’s tougher isn’t it?