Saturday, November 11, 2006

Middle East Reaction to the Elections

There appears to be a wide range of reaction to the Tuesday elections in the Middle East. There are some who are now nervous about what American policy will be with a Democratic controlled congress. There are some who now expect changes more in line with their own philosophies. There seems to be a large amount of indifference. I have read articles today on Fox News, CNN, and even on a couple of blogs where the authors say that many in the Middle East have seen very little difference in Democratic versus Republican foreign policy in that region, so they don’t really care about the results from this week.

However, over the last few days, I have seen two news items that don’t seem to get very much coverage that worry me. I was flying out of town this week and heard a broadcast on CNN stating there was celebration by Iraqi insurgents over the Democratic victory. I have searched and searched and can’t find a print version of this news item. Still I am a little worried by the implications of this if it is indeed true.

The other news story I saw today on Reuters. I trust its authenticity. Reuters has been doing this a long time, and is fairly objective. The title of the report, Khamenei calls elections a victory for Iran, says everything worth saying. I would like an honest response to this question: What does it say when an enemy like Iran is cheering for a particular party in American politics?

Al Qaeda doesn’t seem to care. The lead man for Al Qaeda in Iraq today says he has 12,000 troops in Iraq (so much for Iraq not being part of the war on terror) and will not stop until the White House is destroyed. Surely that is a clear sign that Al Qaeda wants us out of Iraq.

So my second question is this: If enemies like Iran, Syria, and Al Qaeda all want us to withdraw from Iraq, how could it possibly be in the best interest of the United States to leave before we accomplish our mission?

1 comment:

Domesticated Dog said...

The insurgents probably will celebrate. Iraq is now part of the war on terror - that is almost impossible to dispute now. Iraq has more violent terrorist activity than anywhere else in the world right n now except, perhaps, the Sudan.

The violence will increase in the absence of a strong US troop a presence, that needs to be increased to create stability. The

Dems actually have more of a problem with Iraq now than before, because they are eliminating some of the excuses they would have had in 2008. They have to develop a workable plan.

The Rovian phrase "cut and run", to me is an insult to the troops. They have already done what the military was designed to do conquer a country through the use of military force, but they have been asked to police crazy people. This historically has never worked in the absence total oppression. Our military is being asked to do something that has not traditionally been done.

Recall, that the Romans would intentionally leave certain puppet leaders that already had respect among the people in power to stabilize location and would totally obliterate all resistance to empirical power. When we invaded Japan Emperor Hirohito was left symbolically in tact, because the Japanese were crazy and suicidal enemy. Well, guess what we have a crazy and suicidal enemy in Iraq and the Dems have to this point presented no plan that will every garner enough support to become the new course without a lot of help from the GOP, because the Dems are still fractured.

The Dems now scoff at Rogue, but look what he was up against in this election. There was no way to make the opponent to look bad enough in some cases, because the guys on his side of the road imploded. That is not to say all of them did, but the party itself became its own liability. I heard ole' buttercup Andrew Sullivan opine on how Rove was not a genius. That is dead wrong the man is a genius. He has taken what was one of the weakest presidential candidates in terms of skill, track record, and presentation and made him the most powerful president this country has seen in about 60 years. Far more powerful than Reagan. They assembled a great team and achieved certain political goals. Rove is a cool and rational genius.

As a final note, yeah big winners are Iran and North Korea. It means that the invasions are called off. Now, they can stop war posturing and get back to the business of knocking off neutron in their cyclotrons for a while. We might as well just send them some beryllium.