President Bush on Iraq

You have probably heard about President Bush's Address to the Nation regarding his new plan on Iraq. The main parts of the plan are 1) deploy 20,000+ more troops to Iraq immediately to help Iraqi forces secure Baghdad, and 2) double public works projects to bolster Iraqi civilian support of their government and produce a culture of hope. There's lots of other details about how this will happen, but I'll let you read the fine print yourselves. The alternative to this new plan is to leave Iraq entirely and simply hope for the best—likely resulting in mass violence, civil war, and the eventual control of Iraq by extremists and terrorists.

There is no easy solution to Iraq and no obvious course of action that guarantees success, but I argue that we must do something—we must do the best thing we can under the circumstances. There's a quote that is often attributed to Edmund Burke, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." While imperfect, there is a truth present in it. We can either turn our back on the Iraqi people, leaving them with a mess we largely created, or we can stand up for what we believe is good. We can set things right again, putting a stop to terrorists and extremists, providing hope to the Iraqi people, or we can turn our backs on them and watch on CNN from our comfy recliners as they suffer, die, and turn Iraq into an extremist stronghold. And let's not think for a moment that the terrorists and extremists would just set up their recliners in Iraq and be happy to watch us playing golf on ESPN. America needs to take a stand, not against the war, but against giving up and giving in to terrorists.

For the record, I don't like that more American troops are putting their lives at risk, nor that we're blowing through billions of dollars in this effort. I don't like the reasons we went there, and I'm not at all happy about the mess we've made since we arrived. But quitting will not set those things right. Quitting will not ensure peace. Quitting will probably not save lives in the long run. Quitting is an immediate feel-good measure with no lasting benefit to America or Iraq. It's time to remind the terrorists and the world that Americans are not quitters.