A Real Dark Day In Iraq

We write this having strongly supported the purpose of the Iraq war.

Tonight, as India remains occupied with our continuing monsoon troubles and, believe it or not, cricket, bad tidings come from Iraq.

In the past couple days alone, a single US marines battalion alone has lost 20 young men there. Baghdad remains in chaos, the rest of Iraq even worse. There is little prospect of a sustainable political accord that might bring peace there, nor is there evidence of real progress in terms of improving day-to-day life for Iraqis.

None of this catastrophe diminishes the valid purpose of the war -- to take the battle to the very heart of Arabia, whose theocratic & secular tyrannies have (perhaps inadvertently) brought us the shadow of Al Qaeda. Since the men who lead these anachronistic tyrannies see no reason to reform, taking apart one of them (any one of them, the seemingly easiest one of them) made a great deal of sense.

The shocking chaos that's regrettably followed this valid purpose is a major problem because this suggests something the world did not know prior to this war: that even the mighty United States, who's spent blood & bullion in Iraq like they were water, cannot tame a country of merely 25 million.

The implications are staggering. Given how this is turning out, American people will not back another similar initiative any time soon. This blunts American power since other tyrants and evil doers know they have more flexibility than they realized they had prior to the Iraq war. Because America is the long pole holding up the globalization tent, this is bad news for all of us.

Also, consider this. If America could not impose its will & values in Iraq, can India ever do so in a much larger -- and much more dangerous -- Pakistan?

A lot of people on the left will now say, I told you so. They shouldn't exult too much. If America fails in Iraq and this creates a comfort zone for all manner of maniacal killers, their victims will be all of us -- whether we supported or opposed the Iraq war. In this dark hour, we are all in the same leaking boat. Besides, the left had no real idea on how to deal with the terrorism crisis except to argue (no, demand) that we deal with terrorism's so-called root causes -- i.e. concede defeat on political matters even though we think we are on the right side. The left has little credibility regardless of how dark this Iraq moment becomes.

So, here we are. Iraq is, alas, going to become a real test for American resolve & leadership. From what we know of America, every instinct in its soul would make it stand its ground and fight; but who can blame it for feeling real down when a week like this one comes along.