Thursday, October 30, 2003

Hearts And Minds

War

This Washington Post Editorial is very sobering.  A key quote:

“It’s war because our undefeated enemies say it is and behave accordingly.

In that stubborn resistance lies a fundamental truth that seems too often to have eluded American political leaders since World War II: It’s not the winner who typically decides when victory in a war has been achieved. It’s the loser. ”

If that is true, and it does seem so to me, then the hearts and minds of everyday Iraqis are really the key to the mission.  It also places in distinctly sharper relief the Administration’s predictions before the war that Americans would be welcomed as liberators, and that the population would fall over themselves to greet the incoming troops. 

That has happened in small ways, but the overall situation is poor, and the attacks are accelerating.  Riverbend gives us a view from one Iraqi citizen; are we winning her heart and mind?  How do we convince the people shooting at the troops, recruiting “resistance fighters”, that the war simply doesn’t need to go on?

It will go on as long as there are people willing to fight and die against perceived occupation.  When it comes to the Arab world, it seems that the supply of such people is almost limitless...and with population growth there, as fast as they can be killed (to put it bluntly), they are being replaced. 

Is war and aggression truly the best path?  Is there another way?


Posted by Ross on 10/30/03 at 04:43 PM
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