The Emporia Gazette

February 14, 2012

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REFERENCE is to Clifford May’s comments (July 16). May gives us the usual Bush hash for an indefinite presence in Iraq while predicting horrific consequences unless we stay to avoid the calamity of an al-Qaida victory.

His urgency that we must win avoids entirely just what a win is supposed to look like. Militarily, we’re getting nowhere, so the implication is that we must keep trying. But to do what? Quell the bitter hatreds that have existed for centuries between warring Islamic factions?

Since when is it our mission to settle such disputes when our ordinal purpose was to dispose of Saddam and his illusory WMD? The claim that we will embolden al-Qaida is more assertion than substance. It is just as likely that Iraqi nationalists will not tolerate al-Qaida once we no longer fuel its alliance with the insurgents.

Nor do we have any reason to assume that Iran will be embraced with open arms once we leave. Do we learn nothing from history? All of Southeast Asia was predicted to turn Communist if the Viet Cong prevailed. Fifty thousand Americans died in the service of that dire prediction. Since the assumption never materialized, did they die in vain? What we’ve had is mostly hot air coming from the Bush crowd. But resources have and are being squandered that could better be used to address our vulnerabilities.

Stupidity masquerading as unassailable, but basically spurious and impoverished authority, has had its day long enough.