Pandora's War In the Sandbox!

We've heard it all from every side staring cockeyed at the boob tube night after night. America has a record of imperialism that marches on in Iraq. America is spreading freedom. America is spreading tyranny. There were no WMDs. They FedExed the WMDs. We should draw down troop numbers and leave. We should ramp up troop numbers and get the job done. America is in an unwinnable war! Since when does winning have to be an objective to justify going to war? What if the first step is realizing there are no winners and losers this time, only necessitating circumstances? And on and on it goes, where it will stop, we must all at some point agree, nobody knows. One thing we do know is that we've opened up a Pandora's Box in the Middle East, or rather, a Pandora's Box was opened upon us. No one not suffering from amnesia questions the bi-partisan support (at the time) for war with Afghanistan, the less limited but still majority support for war with Iraq (after months of U.N. weapons inspectors were given the cold shoulder) and the crimes against humanity propogated by The Butcher of Baghdad. But in the current Middle Eastern front of the War on Terror, it's time we blew the whistle. The bill of goods is being sold by the Left and the Right. Given the centuries old scorn of Western society by Jihadists in the Middle East, a major attack on our homeland was inevitable. A response of some sort was necessary to discourage or, at a minimum, delay the sitting powers at the time in Afghanistan AND Iraq from further indirect or direct support of attacks on the United States. And any politician currently using "a total withdrawal" or any similar language is either A) taking advantage of your emotions and selling a dishonest optimism as a November 7th platform, or B) not being serious or educated in their understanding of the religious nature of the war as seen by Islamic Fundamentalists.

The Middle-Eastern view of history is not the American lunch-in-a-sack, fast food sound byte culture that allows us to declare success or failure after one, two or even five years. They know how to chew their food, digest and be PATIENT. Simply put, the Jihadist conflict with the West predates attacks on 911, attacks on the USS Cole, American Embassies in Africa, military barracks in Saudi Arabia, Marine barracks in Lebanon, the World Trade Center in `93 or even the song-and-dance of a Playboy Bunny Presidential Happy Birthday Wish! The conflict actually pre-dates the War of 1812 when in 1802 President Jefferson decided to challenge the "barbarism" of Arab warships preying on American merchant ships off the Barbary Coast. Jefferson asked the Arab diplomat "where's the shame?" and was given an answer that their right to attack was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, written in the Koran, that all nations not answering to their authority were sinners, worthy of subjugation. Adams, his predecessor, had warned that "We ought not to fight at all unless we determine to fight them forever". Jefferson, bucking the trend, launched his response against the twenty year record of kidnapping and ransoming of American merchantmen in North Africa. After the Bashaw of Tripoli took the crew of the USS Philadelphia captive at the Tripoli Coast, William Eaton rounded up his Marines and broke out to march 500 miles across Libya and take the coastal town of Derna, simultaneously ending the conflict (for a time) and giving the Marines a new line to their Marine hymn along with a great accessory for their uniforms - a sword shaped like an Arab scimitar (America, Bennett 182-183).

The time for the debate over how to close Pandora's Box is over. If America is a victim, many of its greatest wounds may be self-inflicted by those who would like to get this pesky little war over with so as to get back to internal politics and power-brokering. NEWSFLASH FROM THE COMMON MAN: There will never be a safe and total disengagement date for American interests in Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East. Why? Because it's not about the oil stupid! It's not about the land. It's not about the prestige and it's not about a seat at the United Nations. It's only what these things represent. Quit thinking like a Westerner and getting distracted by claims to political motivations as they are given in diplomatic talks with Islamic Fundamentalist politicos. Does this mean we are destined to be an occupying force? Yes and no. We will not occupy but we will always be a support from a shorter distance. With any luck, we will never again push the likes of John O'Neill and Ahmed Shah Massoud to the back of the line. Everything changed for America after 9-11. For the Jihadist, it was simply a boldfaced chapter in an on-going religious conflict between Allah and The Great Satan. And no number of proposed Nancy Pelosi changes can dress up the House enough to make them feel at home.