Why The Iraq Bush Plan Will Work

Doug Wead
Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

At first glance the president's address to the nation looked about as energetic as a losing football team running out the clock.

It was as if he were only putting in place the conditions he will later use as his pretext to pull out of Iraq altogether, blaming it on a non-supportive Democratic congress or an uncommitted Iraqi government.

His plan seemed hardly a tweak of a policy that by his own admission hasn't been working.

But anyone who draws that conclusion doesn't know George W. Bush.

Everyone talks about the differences between the two presidents, Bush the father and Bush the son. Having worked for both men in various capacities over the years I can tell you that despite different decision making styles and almost opposite personalities, there are a number of qualities they share and none more pronounced than their propensity for understatement.

As staffers we became good at spotting the steel behind the whisper. The softer the tone, the more boring the intonation, the sleepier the eyes, the more powerful the commitment.

Bush is onto something with his new plan and he knows it.

Democrat presidential candidate Gov. Tom Vilsak says we are only putting 20,000 more troops in harm's way. That it is like feeding men into a meat grinder. How will more help?

Conditions Are Ripe

What makes the Bush plan workable, however, is the part that is the least mentioned the so called "economic" piece. If additional troops help secure the oil infrastructure, the flow of money increases. And with the flow of money everything else is possible. The electrical grid can be secured. Have you ever gone a day or two without electricity? It is enough to make anyone angry. And the sewage and sanitation system will recover and then the schools and the hospitals. The roads can be rebuilt. It is a chain reaction.

In a sense, it is the obvious conclusion one makes after reading Bob Woodward's latest book, "State of Denial ," which we are told the president did. We can bemoan the fact that it took a journalist to do the fact-finding work that the secretary of Defense or the president, himself, should have ordered done, but Woodward's interviews with soldiers and civilians, big shots and people on the street, seem to demonstrate that if some economic progress were to show itself, great portions of the Iraqi population would be neutralized.

When the Iraqi people have something to lose by civil war, they will calm themselves down. After all, for generations they have lived together, Sunni and Shiite; they have married each other; and worked side by side.

The weakness of the plan seems to be the American resolve.

The nagging suspicion, even certainty, that more American deaths will turn American public opinion. It is inevitable, goes this argument. It is only a matter of time. Sen. Kennedy calls Iraq "Bush's Vietnam ." So if we are going to lose this war anyway then we might as well bail out now and keep someone's son or daughter off the casualty lists.

But the fact is that this war in Iraq is nothing like Vietnam . And one big reason is oil.

Abandoning Vietnam didn't hurt the American economy; it prompted a boom. But if the Iraqi oil fields fall into the hands of an extremist government allied to Syria and Iran all bets are off. Should a Democrat congress defund this war and pull us out, we will see oil prices rise to $9 a gallon at the gas pump.

Americans wouldn't elect a Democrat president again in our lifetime. Yes, they are blustering, these Democrats, but they are not dumb.

The Ripple Effect

Then there are other friends, such as the oil rich Saudi Arabia .

Do we abandon her to the hungry Islamic extremist governments nearby? When Iraq and Iran were at each other's throats their threat was diminished; but united with Syria they could turn Saudi Arabia , the world's largest oil producing nation, into a shooting gallery for Islamic extremists.

The next president would be sending the troops right back into the Middle East .

There is peaceful Jordan , a nation which has taken incalculable political risks sharing with us priceless intel that has allowed us to preempt terrorist attacks in Europe . We would lose our eyes and ears. Jordan who actually supported Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War would have to cut lose from us for its own survival.

And what about Israel ? What is the Israeli equivalent in Kennedy's Vietnam comparison? No one talks about our friendship with Israel because it is too sensitive to mention. But Israel is one of our oldest and most reliable allies. In fact, it is more than an ally. It is our alter ego.

We don't even have to sign a treaty with Israel . We can count on it to instinctively do the things that are in our best interest in the Middle East . For years we kept troops in Korea and Germany and Diego Garcia and left the most valuable spot on earth totally unprotected because we didn't need to have troops in the Middle East . We had a friend.

So how would Israeli feel about an American withdrawal? Their public opinion polls are clear. They like having us in Iraq , so close.

They are quietly reassured that we have awakened to the evils of a terrorism that has plagued their lives throughout their short tortured history.

Israel : Canary in a Coal Mine

For Jews around the world, including here in America , the holocaust is ever on their minds. Israel is the canary in the coal mine. If it survives they are safe. But if it is threatened, they are threatened. And an American pull out in Iraq would be a scary proposition for Israel and thus a scary proposition to the American Jewish community. At least the smart ones.

The point is, unlike Vietnam , there are cultural, political, and economic self interests in sustaining this effort.

We can all complain about getting into this mess. We can blame it on faulty intelligence, or arrogant neocons, or the president and his sense of unfinished family business. But the fact is we have invaded Iraq . And leaving without securing a working government could be politically dangerous as well as economically disastrous.

Nor is the president's plan the last resort it is made out to be. On a recent trip to Jakarta , the world's largest Islamic nation, I was surprise to read a front page story declaring their government's willingness to send troops to help police Iraq .

We have hardly begun to understand Islam.

We were astonished by the ugly video of the execution of Saddam Hussein but for two years the Islamic world watched court scenes of a shaved judge haranguing a bearded Hussein, holding a green covered Quran to his breast. Our ignorance of Islam is stunning. We can't even get the visuals right. And that is actually a plus because it means we can only get better as we slowly begin to learn and find our way.

No, this is not Vietnam . And the destruction of the twin trade towers on Sept. 11, 2001 was not the sinking of a gunboat in the Gulf of Tonkin . Our Militant Islamic enemy is elusive and deadly, but there is no super power behind it. Vietnam had Russia and China supplying them and threatening to come to he side if the war got out of hand.

The despair we feel now is born out of that bitter experience. But this is a new battle. And a different president. One whose resolve doesn't weaken or bend. It is a quality that irritates many and is often a weakness as well as a strength but it may serve the nation well in this crisis.

The Urge to Surge

The urge to surge is exactly the right strategy for the right time. If the economic package is executed properly it will provide the time and space to rebuild the economy and a better life will emerge for thousands of Iraqi people.

By Benjamin Harvey, Associated Press Writer - Sept 15, 2006

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Pakistan's legislature unanimously condemned Pope Benedict XVI. Lebanon's top Shiite cleric demanded an apology. And in Turkey, the ruling party likened the pontiff to Hitler and Mussolini and accused him of reviving the mentality of the Crusades.

Across the Islamic world Friday, Benedict's remarks on Islam and jihad in a speech in Germany unleashed a torrent of rage that many fear could burst into violent protests like those that followed publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

By citing an obscure Medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman," Benedict inflamed Muslim passions and aggravated fears of a new outbreak of anti-Western protests.

The last outpouring of Islamic anger at the West came in February over the prophet cartoons first published in a Danish newspaper. The drawings sparked protests — some of them deadly — in almost every Muslim nation in the world.

Some experts said the perceived provocation by the spiritual leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics could leave even deeper scars.

"The declarations from the pope are more dangerous than the cartoons, because they come from the most important Christian authority in the world — the cartoons just came from an artist," said Diaa Rashwan, an analyst in Cairo, Egypt, who studies Islamic militancy.

On Friday, Pakistan's parliament adopted a resolution condemning Benedict for making what it called "derogatory" comments about Islam, and seeking an apology. Hours later, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned the Vatican's ambassador to express regret over the pope's remarks Tuesday.

Notably, the strongest denunciations came from Turkey — a moderate democracy seeking European Union membership where Benedict is scheduled to visit in November as his first trip as pope to a Muslim country.

Salih Kapusuz, deputy leader of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party, said Benedict's remarks were either "the result of pitiful ignorance" about Islam and its prophet or, worse, a deliberate distortion.

"He has a dark mentality that comes from the darkness of the Middle Ages. He is a poor thing that has not benefited from the spirit of reform in the Christian world," Kapusuz told Turkish state media. "It looks like an effort to revive the mentality of the Crusades."

"Benedict, the author of such unfortunate and insolent remarks, is going down in history for his words," Kapusuz added. "He is going down in history in the same category as leaders such as Hitler and Mussolini."

Even Turkey's staunchly pro-secular opposition party demanded the pope apologize before his visit. Another party led a demonstration outside Ankara's largest mosque, and a group of about 50 people placed a black wreath outside the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the pope should explain and "tell us what exactly did he mean. ... It can't just be left like that."

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi has tried to defuse anger, saying the pope did not intend to offend Muslim sensibilities and insisting Benedict respects Islam. In Pakistan, the Vatican envoy voiced regret at "the hurt caused to Muslims."

But Muslim leaders said outreach efforts by papal emissaries were not enough.

"We do not accept the apology through Vatican channels ... and ask him (Benedict) to offer a personal apology — not through his officials," Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanon's most senior Shiite cleric, told worshippers in Beirut.

Rashwan, the analyst, feared the official condemnations could be followed by widespread popular protests. Already there had been scattered demonstrations in several Muslim countries.

"What we have right now are public reactions to the pope's comments from political and religious figures, but I'm not optimistic concerning the reaction from the general public, especially since we have no correction from the Vatican," Rashwan said.

About 2,000 Palestinians angrily protested Friday night in Gaza City. Earlier, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, of the Islamic militant group Hamas, said the pope had offended Muslims everywhere.

In Cairo, some 100 demonstrators stood outside the al-Azhar mosque chanting: "Oh Crusaders, oh cowards! Down with the pope!"

The pope quoted from a book recounting a conversation between 14th-century Byzantine Christian Emperor Manuel Paleologos II and a Persian scholar on the truths of Christianity and Islam.

"The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war," Benedict said. "He said, I quote, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.'"

The pope did not explicitly agree with nor repudiate the comment.

In Britain, the head of the Muslim Council, a body representing 400 Muslim groups, said the emperor's views quoted by the pope were bigoted.

"One would expect a religious leader such as the pope to act and speak with responsibility and repudiate the Byzantine emperor's views in the interests of truth and harmonious relations between the followers of Islam and Catholicism," said Muhammad Abdul Bari, the council's secretary-general.

Many Muslims accused Benedict of seeking to promote Judeo-Christian dominance over Islam.

Even Iraq's often divided Shiite and Sunni Arabs found unity in their anger over the remarks, with clerics from both communities criticizing Benedict.

"The pope and Vatican proved to be Zionists and that they are far from Christianity, which does not differ from Islam. Both religions call for forgiveness, love and brotherhood," Shiite cleric Sheik Abdul-Kareem al-Ghazi said during a sermon in Iraq's second-largest city, Basra.

Few in Turkey, especially, failed to pick up on Benedict's reference to Istanbul as Constantinople — the city's name more than 500 years ago — before it was conquered by Muslim Ottoman Turks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the German-born pope, saying his message had been misunderstood.

"It is an invitation to dialogue between religions and the pope has explicitly urged this dialogue, which I also endorse and see as urgently necessary," she said Friday. "What Benedict XVI makes clear is a decisive and uncompromising rejection of any use of violence in the name of religion."

In the United States, a Muslim group, the Council for American-Islamic Relations, asked for a meeting with a Vatican representative and urged more efforts at improving understanding between Muslims and Catholics.

"The proper response to the pope's inaccurate and divisive remarks is for Muslims and Catholics worldwide to increase dialogue and outreach efforts aimed at building better relations between Christianity and Islam," the group said.

LEBANON PRIME MINISTER 
CONDEMNS ISRAEL

Iran Hints at August 22  
Doomsday for Israel

NETANYAHU SAYS: ‘WE MUST FINISH THE JOB’!

KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found this northern Israeli city a ghost town today when he came to meet the residents officials.

Those that stayed behind were few. They also were defiant – and so was he. In a town meeting behind the heavy steel doors and reinforced concrete of the city hall bomb shelter, Netanyahu came to reassure residents that he fully supported the government in the war in Lebanon . He said as much even though he became leader of the opposition to Prime Minister Olmert following the March 2006 election.

One resident gave such praise to Netanyahu and his Likud party that Netanyahu joked that he should run for parliament.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SPEAKS ON HEZBOLLAH ROCKET ATTACKS & LEBANON WAR

An impassioned woman blasted the government for pussy-footing around in its ground offensive in Lebanon. She said she was ready to stay "six months in the shelters" if that was needed in order to finish off the Hezbollah rocket attacks.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAID GOAL IS TO FINISH THE JOB WITH HEZBOLLAH & LEBANON

Benjamin Netanyahu told NewsMax in an exclusive interview that he did not believe it would take tha"Finish the job. That is the goal set by the government. It's the goal that everyone here supports," he said.

Sporadic mortar fire hit the hills above this empty city today, setting brush fires. On Sunday, over one hundred rockets and mortars pounded the city and its immediate surroundings.

An artillery battalion has camped two kilometers outside of town in an empty field, and pounds Hezbollah positions day and night.

Hezbollah rockets have landed within the Israelis artillery position over the past two weeks, and have injured several soldiers, but none seriously, NewsMax learned today from battalion troops and officers.

"Our ambulance was hit by a katyusha," said Dr. Zev Wimpfheimer, the battalion doctor. Wimpfheimer, who hails from Teaneck , N.J. , came to Israel two years ago and is nearing the end of his compulsory 18 months of military service as a doctor.

At 33, he is the oldest officer in the entire battalion, besides the battalion commander.

Netanyahu said that Iran was waging a "proxy war" against Israel and America, and that Hezbollah wouldn't last "two days without Iran."

The following is an exclusive NewsMax interview, held today, with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

NewsMax: What was the message you brought here to Kiryat Shemona?

Benjamin Netanyahu: Finish the job. Don't do half the job. Remove the threat by breaking Hezbollah's fighting ability and destroying the missile arsenal. That is the goal set by the government. It's the goal that everyone here supports.

You saw me meet somebody in there who said, "I'm willing to stay in the shelters six months," perhaps not, and it won't take that long – but finish the job. That's the message.

NewsMax: Some people have called this Iran 's proxy war against Israel and America . Do you agree with that?

Benjamin Netanyahu: Without a doubt. One hundred percent. Hezbollah doesn't last two days without Iran . It doesn't last three days without Syria .

NewsMax: What do you think are Iran'sgoals?

Benjamin Netanyahu: I think this is a test-fire, test-firing of rockets into a Western country. Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel . It denies the Holocaust while preparing a new Holocaust. But Iran is also committed to a demented branch of Shiism which sees an apocalyptic war of millions of casualties in which Shiism will rise and the West will go down.

We may be the first target, but we're not the last target.

The other kind of fanaticism we witnessed 60 years ago, Nazism, also tried to arm itself with atomic weapons. These mad militancies start with attacks on the Jews, but they never end there. And ultimately the target is our free civilization.

NewsMax: World War II started with the Spanish Civil War. Is this like the Spanish Civil War, testing out the weapons, testing out the techniques and the tactics?

Benjamin Netanyahu: I think that radical Islam declared a world war on the rest of the world a quarter of a century ago, with the victory of the Mujahedin in Afghanistan and the formation of al-Qaida and the establishment of the first radical Islamic republic in Iran .

These are expressions already of that same ideology that has been gurgling forth.

Now it has established two beachheads: one in Gaza with the Hamas, the other with Hezbollah in the north. And the citizens of the world beware.

What you see here is what you'll get later.

Gingrich says

World War 111 has Begun

World War III has begun, and the nation’s leadership is failing to deal with this reality, former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich concludes.

Appearing on NBC’s "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert Sunday, Gingrich explained that "today is not the fifth day of the war, it’s the 58th year of the effort by those who want to destroy Israel . As Ahmadinejad, the head of Iran , says, he wants to defeat the Americans and eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. So we should not see this event in isolation. There is an . . . Iran/Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas alliance trying to destroy Israel .”

"The Israelis withdrew from Gaza to create the circumstance of peace. The Israelis withdrew from south Lebanon to create the circumstance of peace,” Gingrich continued. "They now have a thousand missiles fired from Gaza , they’ve had hundreds of missiles fired from south Lebanon . You clearly have Iranian involvement. There are at least 400 Iranian guards in south Lebanon . Apparently it was an Iranian missile fired by Iranians which hit an Israeli warship yesterday. The United States should be saying to Syria and Iran , ' South Lebanon is going to be cleared out. We are for Israel and the Lebanese government breaking the back of Hezbollah, getting rid of all 10,000 to 13,000 missiles, and we will decisively stop any effort by Syria and Iran to intervene.'”

Gingrich says the current crisis facing Israel is part of a larger world war that involved the United States .

"I mean, this is absolutely a question of the survival of Israel , but it’s also a question of what is really a world war,” Gingrich said.

He then