Monday, March 13, 2006
The Solution for Iraq
After seeing what our current policy has accomplished and recognizing that a change in policy is necessary, it is time to begin laying the groundwork for results other than a long drawn out hope for withdrawal with dignity. The first thing to recognize is the source of the biggest problem in Iraq is: the existence of armed militias. To have a stable country there cannot be armed factions enforcing their version of law simultaneously while a “coalition” of national representatives haggle over who should be in charge. The only sensible answer to reigning in the various militias is a declaration and enforcement of martial law. This is the purpose of martial law i.e. to bring order to a chaotic situation.
The silliness of waiting for the warring factions to come to an agreement when they have been brawling and hating for centuries is relying on nothing but a vanishing hope that our background presence will somehow encourage a change. Pouring American taxpayer dollars into rebuilding what the militias blow up is a fool hardy notion that only reinforces our reputation as give-away artists. We are not fighting a war in Iraq any longer we are merely stationing troops and material in a country that is disintegrating into chaos. It would be the same thing for a parent to toss their children in a room, lock the door and hope no one would fight. This is not how to create peace and harmony.
First you lay down the rules, then you enforce them. Take away the weapons , imprison the troublemakers and draw up a constitution that forbids the violation of individual rights. This in essence was the approach in Japan after their surrender after WWII. It worked. This is not the plan in Iraq, yet. If there is to be a plan this is the only one that makes any sense. We cannot withdraw without planning another invasion to depose the next tyrant. We have tried to train the Iraqi’s to handle their own security and without an outline of what the expectation is we simply have a rag tag band of Summer soldiers and police vulnerable to wandering militias led by various mullahs of various Muslim sects. This is unworkable, which we have seen and we do not need to waste any more time, money and personnel wringing our hands on what to do. It’s time to get over this nonsense of feigned compassion and show that we mean business. Instead of a figurehead commander we need a supreme governor of Iraq to impose martial law and take out any infiltration from surrounding countries. We need to tell Tehran that they are next on the list and our survival depends on them adopting a constitution that insures individual rights, their nuclear ambitions must be immediately renounced and any infiltration will be an act of war.
With these declarations in place we can get to work and actually get something done that will ensure our security. It won’t take long for the Iraqi’s to realize that order and respect for the law is vastly preferable to daily bombings of innocents. What we are trying to do now to no avail is to use our vehicle of force to persuade. It isn’t working and it won’t work. You have to show people what you mean by setting up the model and show then what happens to those who don’t want to live in peace and kill innocents. This is how the message gets across. Waiting for them to see the light is the road to the long drawn out disaster that doesn’t enhance our security and accomplishes more losses for us.
Now how do you get such a plan into the minds of our leaders? First you formulate it and then you advertise it. You point out that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have a plan for enforcing martial law and building a free country after order is established. You can’t build anything on discord. When someone asks,” What are we going to do about Iraq?’ Ask them, “What about martial law?” Martial law is putting the military in charge of the country they conquered and is the only way to establish the victor's priorities. We are not interested in looting their country ( what would we loot ? ). We’re interested in establishing a free society that is governed by the rule of law and respects individual rights. This is in our interest for our security. We are not interested in them voting in another tyrant who will rattle sabers at us, have or pretend to have WMD’s and be a disruption to peace in the world. If the world knew that any threat to us would be met with an invasion, a replacement of tyranny with liberty via the imposition of martial law and the establishment of a constitutional government based on individual rights- there would be no more defiance in the name of some religion or sect. Each would be insured the free practice of their beliefs only if they respected the beliefs of those who disagreed with them. This is the American way and it beats the hell out of these jumping, violent mobs chanting for nothing but chaos and ultimate tyranny.
Now if someone should ask if such an approach by American’s would be tyrannical, they would have to be informed that it is not tyrannical to establish a free country based on individual rights. The United States was established to eliminate tyranny at home and if it must be established elsewhere in the world because it is a threat to us at home, then that is our call and our mission. The central fight is- and will always be- the right of the individual to be secure from tyranny. This requires constitutional guarantees enforced by a limited government. Necessarily limited so that the rights it is charged with protecting are not violated by ensuing statutes. But the beginning of this establishment of liberty must begin with a government that is effective in reducing chaos and the violation of individual rights. Wandering bands of vigilantes will not produce a nation of law and freedom no matter where it is. The United States would be the middle East reincarnated if we permitted gangs of religious zealots to enforce their rules on all they could intimidate and control. We wouldn’t permit that here why should we permit it in a country we invaded and conquered? There must be a realization that conquering a country by a free nation implies a rational purpose. If we want free trade we must have free traders. If we want security we cannot conquer and let the residual band of hooligans take over what we have conquered and turn it back into a threat. The sequence of our mission in the world if we are to survive as a free nation is as follows: 1. Warn the world’s nations we will not condone threats. 2. Any plausible threat will be considered an act of war. 3. We will invade and conquer such threatening nations . 4. We will establish martial law and draw up and enforce a constitution based on individual rights. 5. the new government will be backed by our presence until it has proven that it can function on its own. 6. We will withdraw.
This approach will work but it takes the courage to quit being apologetic for our way of life. Either we enforce it where necessary or we watch it disappear in a wave of chaos- wringing our hands about what it was we had that no one would accept. The zealots have no compunction about enforcing their way of life on others and this initiation of force must be met with retaliatory force by us. It is justified , It is necessary . And anything less is Un-American.
The silliness of waiting for the warring factions to come to an agreement when they have been brawling and hating for centuries is relying on nothing but a vanishing hope that our background presence will somehow encourage a change. Pouring American taxpayer dollars into rebuilding what the militias blow up is a fool hardy notion that only reinforces our reputation as give-away artists. We are not fighting a war in Iraq any longer we are merely stationing troops and material in a country that is disintegrating into chaos. It would be the same thing for a parent to toss their children in a room, lock the door and hope no one would fight. This is not how to create peace and harmony.
First you lay down the rules, then you enforce them. Take away the weapons , imprison the troublemakers and draw up a constitution that forbids the violation of individual rights. This in essence was the approach in Japan after their surrender after WWII. It worked. This is not the plan in Iraq, yet. If there is to be a plan this is the only one that makes any sense. We cannot withdraw without planning another invasion to depose the next tyrant. We have tried to train the Iraqi’s to handle their own security and without an outline of what the expectation is we simply have a rag tag band of Summer soldiers and police vulnerable to wandering militias led by various mullahs of various Muslim sects. This is unworkable, which we have seen and we do not need to waste any more time, money and personnel wringing our hands on what to do. It’s time to get over this nonsense of feigned compassion and show that we mean business. Instead of a figurehead commander we need a supreme governor of Iraq to impose martial law and take out any infiltration from surrounding countries. We need to tell Tehran that they are next on the list and our survival depends on them adopting a constitution that insures individual rights, their nuclear ambitions must be immediately renounced and any infiltration will be an act of war.
With these declarations in place we can get to work and actually get something done that will ensure our security. It won’t take long for the Iraqi’s to realize that order and respect for the law is vastly preferable to daily bombings of innocents. What we are trying to do now to no avail is to use our vehicle of force to persuade. It isn’t working and it won’t work. You have to show people what you mean by setting up the model and show then what happens to those who don’t want to live in peace and kill innocents. This is how the message gets across. Waiting for them to see the light is the road to the long drawn out disaster that doesn’t enhance our security and accomplishes more losses for us.
Now how do you get such a plan into the minds of our leaders? First you formulate it and then you advertise it. You point out that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have a plan for enforcing martial law and building a free country after order is established. You can’t build anything on discord. When someone asks,” What are we going to do about Iraq?’ Ask them, “What about martial law?” Martial law is putting the military in charge of the country they conquered and is the only way to establish the victor's priorities. We are not interested in looting their country ( what would we loot ? ). We’re interested in establishing a free society that is governed by the rule of law and respects individual rights. This is in our interest for our security. We are not interested in them voting in another tyrant who will rattle sabers at us, have or pretend to have WMD’s and be a disruption to peace in the world. If the world knew that any threat to us would be met with an invasion, a replacement of tyranny with liberty via the imposition of martial law and the establishment of a constitutional government based on individual rights- there would be no more defiance in the name of some religion or sect. Each would be insured the free practice of their beliefs only if they respected the beliefs of those who disagreed with them. This is the American way and it beats the hell out of these jumping, violent mobs chanting for nothing but chaos and ultimate tyranny.
Now if someone should ask if such an approach by American’s would be tyrannical, they would have to be informed that it is not tyrannical to establish a free country based on individual rights. The United States was established to eliminate tyranny at home and if it must be established elsewhere in the world because it is a threat to us at home, then that is our call and our mission. The central fight is- and will always be- the right of the individual to be secure from tyranny. This requires constitutional guarantees enforced by a limited government. Necessarily limited so that the rights it is charged with protecting are not violated by ensuing statutes. But the beginning of this establishment of liberty must begin with a government that is effective in reducing chaos and the violation of individual rights. Wandering bands of vigilantes will not produce a nation of law and freedom no matter where it is. The United States would be the middle East reincarnated if we permitted gangs of religious zealots to enforce their rules on all they could intimidate and control. We wouldn’t permit that here why should we permit it in a country we invaded and conquered? There must be a realization that conquering a country by a free nation implies a rational purpose. If we want free trade we must have free traders. If we want security we cannot conquer and let the residual band of hooligans take over what we have conquered and turn it back into a threat. The sequence of our mission in the world if we are to survive as a free nation is as follows: 1. Warn the world’s nations we will not condone threats. 2. Any plausible threat will be considered an act of war. 3. We will invade and conquer such threatening nations . 4. We will establish martial law and draw up and enforce a constitution based on individual rights. 5. the new government will be backed by our presence until it has proven that it can function on its own. 6. We will withdraw.
This approach will work but it takes the courage to quit being apologetic for our way of life. Either we enforce it where necessary or we watch it disappear in a wave of chaos- wringing our hands about what it was we had that no one would accept. The zealots have no compunction about enforcing their way of life on others and this initiation of force must be met with retaliatory force by us. It is justified , It is necessary . And anything less is Un-American.
