Perspectives on Iraq

Defeatism from isolationist libertarians:

Selective quotations: US Officers See No Military Solution In Iraq.

Gloom and doom about military recruiting: You and What Army?.

The not altogether gloomy facts about military recruiting: Army misses recruiting goal again.

How to help the Iraqis win their own war: Training the Iraqi Army

Someone who understands the real problem: Recruitment Improvement, in which the author says:

I read that the Army and the Marines are not meeting their enlistment quotas and I have two thoughts about this problem:

One, pay them a lot more. Not just a little more, but a lot more. Much, much more. They are indispensable. Let's treat them that way. If we have to raise taxes to do it, let's do it. These guys deserve a great life style if they offer up their lives for us.

Second, why would anyone join the Army if he reads the newspapers and watches TV? The mainstream media show the military doing three things: being criminals, abusing captives, killing civilians, torturing the innocent -- that's one way. Then they show the Army being stupid, making mistakes that get people killed. That's the second way. Then they show the military getting killed.

Who would want to join a military that's criminal, stupid, and a deathtrap?

But what if the media showed the military building schools, saving little children's lives, feeding families, getting sick people medical care? What if the media showed smiling, grateful Iraqis thanking the Army and the Marines? What if the media showed the military winning battles and capturing and killing terrorists?

But this is the more true picture of the military and it rarely gets showed.

Again, why wouldn't the Army and Marines have trouble attracting recruits if the media is endlessly saying you have to be a fool to enlist?

Well, I guess it never ends, does it?

The American media are still fighting the anti-Vietnam War. I guess it never ends.

But there's this: Good news from Iraq, part 29. And there's a lot of it. Where there's a will, there's a way. That used to be the American spirit. It still is, where it matters, which is in the White House (from Staying in Iraq):

It's too bad this job has turned out to be tougher than expected. But "bad" isn't "calamitous" -- the condition into which everything would fall were we to say to democratic, liberty-seeking Iraq: Over to you; call us if you need anything, like advice on franchising pizza delivery service.

The president knows the consequences of copping out. We may count on him both to recognize and live up to his understanding, which is that as awful as Iraq might be, more awful still would be a stampede now for the exits. No sensible government allows itself to be governed in turn by pollsters.

Let us hope that sensible government is here to stay for a while.