After years of body-count reporting, stringers whose truthfulness is questionable, Democratic Party talking points and a dearth of real reporting and analysis on the war, the tide may be turning. Last week the NY Times reported on the turnaround in Anbar Province and the (so far) success of the surge which as of this writing, only has about 60% of the troops slated to be deployed to it. It wasn’t news for blog-readers. We’ve been reading for months about improvements even before the surge, and we’ve known for years that the media’s picture of a nation in complete turmoil was false. The surge is stepping up the pace of what was already happening. But to have that finally trickle down into the MSM is a welcome development. Now, CNN is finally reporting on a subject that bloggers who support the war have been saying for a long, long time: simply bailing out of Iraq is a bad, bad idea, with long reaching repercussions.
A rapid withdrawal of all U.S. troops would hurt America’s image and hand al Qaeda and other terror groups a propaganda victory that the United States is only a “paper tiger,” CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said. (Send us your reaction)
“It would also play into their strategy, which is to create a mini-state somewhere in the Middle East where they can reorganize along the lines of what they did in Afghanistan in the late ’90s,” Bergen told CNN.com.
It was in Afghanistan where Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda allied with the Taliban, and were allowed to run terror bases and plan the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States.
Bergen says it is imperative that the United States not let that happen in Iraq.
“What we must prevent is central/western Iraq [from] becoming a Sunni militant state that threatens our interests directly as an international terror hub,” he said.
Don Shepperd, a retired Air Force major-general and military analyst for CNN, agreed that Sunni Muslim fighters who support al Qaeda would seek an enclave inside a lawless Iraq likely riven along sectarian lines into Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish regions.
There would be “increasing attempts by terrorists to establish a training sanctuary in Iraq,” Shepperd said.
That’s one of the reasons why a fast withdrawal will not happen, whatever the politicians say, the analysts predict. (Watch why a radical Shiite cleric wants U.S. troops out Video)
“Everyone wants the troops home — the Iraqis, the U.S., the world — but no one wants a precipitous withdrawal that produces a civil war, a bloodbath, nor a wider war in an unstable Mideast,” Shepperd said, adding that the image of the United States was important too.
“And we do not want a U.S that is perceived as having been badly defeated in the global war on terror or as an unreliable future ally or coalition partner.”
Shepperd, a veteran fighter pilot of the Vietnam War, has served as a CNN analyst of the Iraq war since it began. Bergen was one of the first Western journalists to ever meet with bin Laden, and is considered a leading authority on al Qaeda.
Don’t get too excited – CNN still adheres to the party line somewhat by including the view of a sergeant who says we’re going to lose. He’s the only soldier quoted in the article, incidentally. Still, this is overall a very positive development. And I suspect that the views of soldiers who are discouraged and tired will improve if the surge continues to improve the overall situation.
There will be arguments forever on how we got into Iraq in the first place, what happened to the WMD, and how strong a presence terrorists had in Iraq before the invasion. (That they were there is indisputable, as are Saddam’s ties with various terrorist factions. What has not been indisputably established is the extent of the support he gave.) People of good will can certainly disagree on those things, and we’ll continue to do so.
But the fact is that we now are there, and cutting and running is not acceptable for many reasons. It hurts Iraqis who trusted us and sided with us against terrorists. It hurts the US to fulfill bin Laden’s “prophecy” that we are a “paper tiger” which can be beaten. It emboldens the enemy who has promised to continue fighting against us wherever we are, because of who and what we are. To see a mainstream media outlet, especially the one which aired an enemy propaganda sniper video, finally acknowledge that simply “bringing our troops home” is a dangerous idea and will not end this war is very refreshing. Because it comes on the heels of a WaPo editorial that Nancy Pelosi’s recent usurpation of the President’s power to set foreign policy had demonstrably bad effects, it gives rise to the hope that the media tide may actually be turning.
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, guerrilla radio, Adam’s Blog, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, , Pet’s Garden Blog, Rightlinx, Faultline USA, Allie Is Wired, third world county, stikNstein… has no mercy, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Planck’s Constant, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, OTB Sports, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
