Pull-out? The deaths will be on your head

I’m reading a lot about the growing call for America to pull out of Iraq.

There’s lots of ways to debate the war, and whether or not we ever should have entered Iraq.

But the fact is, whether one thinks we should be there or not, we are there. We have deposed Saddam. We have liberated a people who are now trying to chisel out their freedom and democracy, while being threatened by brutes and bullies within their borders.

They are moving forward.

In order to succeed they need two things. They need time – to train their forces and police and to get their political infrastructure established. They need reassurance that America will not desert them when their success is so tantalizingly close.

In order for the Iraq move to Democracy to fail and to descend into murderous chaos, the insurgents need only two things, too. They need the press and the politicians to continue to dwell on negatives and call for withdrawal of our troops. They need to see America “end this war” not in victory but in turmoil and shame. To cut and run. And they need the troops to abandon the people.

Just like, you know, Vietnam. Then they can create their own Killing Fields. And America can descend into isolationist revelry for as long as she lasts – which will not be long, because a great nation that has spilled its blood for freedom will have now twice been seen to lack the spirit to finish what it has begun. A nation that cannot keep its committments cannot be trusted to lead, and if America does not lead, she will die, for she will never follow.

Right now, the insurgents are being vastly encouraged by what they read coming out of the mouths of Democrats and reporters, and even, sadly the Republicans. The message they are being given is: Just be patient. Just hold out a little while, and America will be gone, and you will re-gain control.. Just wait-out Bush.

You who want to play politics with this war, wishing to abandon the people of Iraq merely to shame a president you hate and do a bit of crowing, just be ready to take responsibility for what comes after. Understand that when the inevitable deaths occur in Iraq, and elsewhere, at the hands of these insurgents, and at the hands of a rejuvenated Al Qaeda, that the blood of every victim thereafter will then be on your heads, as will the blood of all 2065 of our service people whose sacrifice will be rendered meaningless by your action.

If America pulls out without victory – without the Iraqis being capable of defending themselves – then every death from insurgents or terrorists – all over the world – will have to be a death counted upon the heads of those who would not allow a serious War on Terror to continue and succeed, simply because to do so would “reflect too well” on a man they hate.

The blood of innocents is a heavy, heavy stain – it will not easily be washed away.

No one likes war. But we cannot pull-out in Iraq without victory. If we do, then the War on Terror will be lost on every front – the West will wholly and utterly become the “weak horse” that first tempted Osama bin Laden.

You folks demanding that we leave Iraq without completing the mission – be ready to bear the cost – be ready to wear the blood of every terrorist victim in Bali, Seattle, Malaysia, Miami, Los Angeles, Paris, Las Vegas, Spain, New York, Chicago, Holland, London, Belfast and Berlin, for it will stain and it will stick, and it will remain.

Our troops are not disheartened by their work, but by the insufficient support of their own nations politicians, and by their own media’s unwillingness to champion them, or to at least give them a bit of decent press. They see the Iraqi’s tasting freedom and they write home in frustration at the fact that the good this nation and her troops has done is all but ignored.

After Hurricane Katrina rolled through New Orleans, the levees broke. They should not have broken, no one wanted them to break, but they broke, nevertheless. The response to the levees breaking could not be a foot-stomping tantrum about how the levees should not have broken and a demand that the water – the whole situation – simply be made to go away. The circumstances were what they were, and the pragmatic, grown-up response had to be: the levees have broken, the water is here, and we will expend the time and energy necessary to drain, clear, sweep and rebuild. None of which will happen overnight.

Maturity and pragmatism demand that America remain in Iraq until she is no longer needed there. And it demands further that the supposed grown-ups who voted for the war remain loyal to the troops and Iraqi civilians who are halfway to victory – to help them across the last deep valley, rather than abandoning them because the terrain is rough.

Pretending that a bad situation can be “fixed” by running away from it is what adolescents do.
Making the best of a bad situation is clear-thinking and adult behavior.

America has a choice, right now, and it is a choice only America can make. It can stand firm and deliver this child of freedom struggling to be born, or it can abandon Iraq for a stillbirth. And whichever choice America makes for Iraq, it will share in its aftermath.

America can choose life or death. It is that fundamental.

This underreported story is why we cannot leave: 173 Sunnis freed from secret Iraqi torture bunker

UPDATE: Hmmm…Siggy and I are on the same wavelength. Feels like we’re talking to the wind, though. Also on the same wavelength: Gateway Pundit who lays it all out, and Stefania and lawhawk. Mona Charen has a good piece on The Cut and Run Party. (h/t Bernard)