The Case For Victory

Tony Blankely has written a wonderful op- ed piece, The Case For Victory, in one of my favorite papers, The Washington Times.

I've excerpted some parts that resonated strongly with me:

In Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, reporters Farnaz Fassihi and Christopher Cooper wrote the phrase: "Mr. Bush and others have stopped talking so much of an outright victory in Iraq as they focus on plans to train Iraqi soldiers ... so American troops can come home."

The Wall Street Journal version of reality is of a piece with the liberal journalists I debate on radio and television. They are keeping up a constant drum beat of not only their own defeatism, but the regular suggestion that President Bush also has stopped calling for victory in Iraq.

In a major USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll from three weeks ago 32 percent of the public said we can't win the war in Iraq. Another 43 percent predict victory, while — critically — 21 percent say "the United States could win the war, but they don't think it will."
If one adds that "could win, but don't think we will win" 21 percent to the 43 percent who predict victory — one has a very solid 64 percent supporting the war.

But although President Bush suffers from a biased, defeatist mainstream media, he still holds his (and our nation's) fate largely in his own hands.

We are a country of 300 million citizens with an annual GDP of twelve trillion dollars and the lead in virtually all human technologies. Within a couple of years we can marshal whatever level of resources — men and material — that are needed to win on this front of the war.

Defeat being unacceptable, victory must be seen as inevitable.