Saturday - January 17, 2004
 What is Next in Iraq? Why Would Anyone Ask Lind?
This rant was edited on
1/18/04.In my last rant, I disagreed
with William Lind and discussed his lack of understanding of basic logic, which
stems from his need to get paid to tell us how much smarter he is than the rest
of the world. First, never trust a man who sucks on a pipe in his official
photo. Who smokes pipes anymore? I've nothing against pipes, but clearly for
him it is an affectation even though he might enjoy smoking one. Do cigarette
smokers have their cigarettes dangling from their mouths in their photos? It's
a pathetic ploy to make us regard him in some sort of faux professorial way, and
it's a warning klaxon that he's pompous and full of balloon
juice.But I am distracted from my
point. In my last
rant I said that the war in Iraq is essentially over and the problems
that remain are political. I thought that was a clear enough statement, but on
reflection it may not be so clear to everyone. Heck, some people even think
Lind makes sense, so I'd better explain myself a bit better.
In Iraq our military is faced with an insurgent
campaign. Ba'athist hold-outs who want a return to their former privileged
positions have been conducting frequent attacks, all of which are impotent in
the large view so long as we don't relent. There is a second source of attacks
and that is a pan-Islamic fanaticism.I
had said that these attacks will continue until the people making them are
converted from their way of thinking, or they are killed. The killing part is
the role of the military and Iraqi police. The conversion is
not.The military can contribute to
this conversion of thought, but they cannot do it or lead that effort in the
long term. This is the arena of ideas,
and people with guns are only persuasive against bodies, not minds.
The work of changing and affecting
minds is an art practiced by politicians. Our politicians, led for now by the
very successful Paul Bremer, need to encourage Iraqi politicians with correct
ideologies to speak up and sway the public's way of thinking. There is every
indication that most Iraqis favor a secular and free government. We need to
find a way to make the people follow leaders that also support this way of
thinking.This is an art. Soldiers and
Marines handing out candy bars to children won't do it. It doesn't hurt, and it
might even help, but the military cannot do it, except to act as politicians.
It is best to let politicians do the politicking, while the military
concentrates on providing physical security, and intervening on an immediate
basis with humanitarian and engineering
assistance.If our nation fails in Iraq
now, it is not because of a failing in the military, it is now purely a function
of politics -- and that is never easy, but always necessary. But you can count
on politicians to duck any blame, and you can count on self-important think tank
wannabes to blame the military for not hiring them for their bad
ideas.Addendum, Jan 18,
2004:Okay, I've been doing some
research on Lind. I knew that he had been around for a while, and now I see
that his writings are all over the internet. I was gratified to find an article
written by an Air
Force Lieutenant Colonel in 1985 that is almost the same as my last
rant .He also hangs out with
Holocaust
deniers . He doesn't deny the Holocaust happened, but he does believe
in an international Jewish conspiracy to destroy Western
Civilization.Like many other racists,
he believes the Lost Cause theory that slaves in the south
were treated like beloved family members
.There are innumerable sites out there
highlighting him and his really bad ideas. I'll leave further research to the
initiative of the reader. What is clear is that he is a racist (a term that I
use very rarely, but he clearly merits it), muddled-minded man who thinks the
best plan in Iraq is to leave no matter what
happens.Why would anyone take him
seriously?
Go Back to the Start, Do Not Collect $200 Send me your two cents
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