posted on Nov, 20 2004 @ 03:39 PM
I'm liberal and I would have shot him twice, because if it's a question of you or me living, brother, you are going away.
And that's the b*tch of it.
You're not allowed to win anymore. It's officially a quagmire. It has nothing to do with war protestors and liberals and democrats, and everything
to do with the moderate Iraqi, and the moderate Muslim in general. Methods and tactics needed to win are no longer condusive to popularity. Popularity
that's crucial for the long term growth and survival of any U.S. backed provisional government.
To beat the insurgents, you have to fight at the same level as them (And notice how I didn't use the term Terrorists. Terrorism is the desperate act
of a failed political movement. Insurgency is the birth of a new political movement. Insurgents have a constituency, terrorists have an audience). You
have to be as dirty. But, in fighting at their level you give up the moral high ground. Moral high ground which is needed for the long term
occupation. Because, without that moral high ground, the people you just liberated won't support you anymore. In their eyes, you are just as bad, if
not worse, than the bad guys. Furthermore, this soldier's actions (While I find it completely justified) simply confirms the hardliner islamic
propaganda in the minds of the moderates, who might normally take such things with a grain of salt.
And here's what the conservatives DON'T understand...things aren't black and white. Things aren't clean. Things aren't simple. These aren't the
beaches of Normandy. You're not liberating the French from the Germans, you're liberating the Germans from the Germans. Which highlights a
fundemental flaw in the Republican logic...
Just because you're right, doesn't mean you right.
Good guys don't wear white. Bad guys don't wear black. We live in a world measured with degrees of gray. We're stuck in a catch 22 now. You win the
short term battles, but lose the long term war. But, you can't win the long term war, unless you win the short term battles.
And after all hell breaks lose and we have to pull out, once again, people will blame it on America's lack of resolve. We somehow "lost" the desire
to win, when we never had a chance in the first place. We aren't the first liberating army to be consumed by the shifting sands of the Persian
deserts, and I somehow don't think we'll be the last.