In an age where many of my fellow countrymen balk at the "intimidation" of having to show an ID to vote, I find myself in awe of the raw courage of people who vote and fight genuine tyranny under threat of death with nothing but a ballot and a bit of ink to mark them for all to see.



The guts required to stand up to what these people do during every election cycle is truly inspiring.


Iraq was shattered, brutalized and impoverished by 35 years of Communism. It has been occupied by us, and now has been invaded by murderous religious fanatics who bomb, shoot and behead citizens who do not submit to their tyranny. And yet, the citizens of that nation stand up to these monsters. They are true heroes and we share a common enemy.

Michael Totten reports on the progress Iraq is making in slowly removing itself from the tar-pit of corruption it has found itself in as a result of centuries of tribalism and decades of communism. His dispatch pulls no punches. It is brutal really, but it includes the sort of story that doesn't get covered much. (Via this blurb at  Hot Air.)

Despite cultural difficulties, our own clumsy and tragic missteps and the brutal tactics of a sadistic and fanatical adversary, they are making progress. Not as fast as some would like to be sure, but progress nonetheless.
Despite everything, it seems that Iraqis have hope for the first time in living memory.
We gave them that hope.
We made them promises.

To renege on those promises as we did in the early 90's (or in the '70s) would be the very definition of evil.

Jerry Pournelle, no fan of the war, says it well  here.

There is such a thing as national honor. Dr. Paul seems to believe that once the nation and the Legions have given their pledged word, it is of no consequence if a later Commander in Chief abandons it on the grounds that the pledge should not have been made. No, it should not have been made; but it was made, and I for one do not want to see another slaughter of those whose crime was believing that America's word was worth something.

We now have a large number of American and British officers who can pick up a phone from Washington or London and call an Iraqi officer that he knows well—an Iraqi he has fought along side of—and talk. Same with untold numbers of Sheiks and government officials, most of whom do not deserve the caricatural disdain they get most often from pundits who have never set foot in Iraq. British and American forces have a personal relationship with Iraqi leaders of many stripes. The long-term intangible implications of the betrayal of that trust through the precipitous withdrawal of our troops could be enormous, because they would be the certain first casualties of renewed violence, and selling out the Iraqis who are making an honest-go would make the Bay of Pigs sell-out seem inconsequential. The United States and Great Britain would hang their heads in shame for a century.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:28 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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