To surge or not to surge.......

......that is the question.

With all the news about the surge in Iraq, the Great El-ahrairah decided to throw in his two-cents worth (Of course, my two-cents are Euro-cents and worth more than two US-cents). Anyway, my opinion of the surge is this: So? It may do what the president says or it may not. What is important is how we got here and what we can do to get out of this situation.

Ah ha! The Great El-ahrairah has turned into a lefty-war critic and will now start to tell everyone that he was against the war before he was for it (or vise versa). Nope, nothing of the sort. I am still 100% for the Iraq war. But, the situation that we are in right now is not due to whether or not there were enough troops on the ground when we invaded or whether there were after or whether it was pollyanne-ish to believe that Sunni and Shia could live together in harmony or anyone of a million liberal talking points on criticising the war. The reason that we are here is because of the influence of the Vietnam generation. The terrorists/insurgents have taken a page from the Vietnamese tactics and decided that using the useful idiots in the press and congress, they can win by making the US public believe that they are loosing the war. To do so, make the only things that they read on the front page be the steady drip, drip, drip of death and the Vietnam generation of John Kerry and John Murtha will do the rest and as we can see, they have fullfilled their part of the bargain.

If the anti-war crowd had been on board from the start with "I may not support the war, BUT, as long as we are there, let's got for desicive victory" instead of "Bush Lied, People Died", things would have turned out much different. The terrorists/insurgents would have become disheartened after a while seeing the total resolve of the American public and political classes for a total and complete victory. I dare say we would have been out of Iraq by now and working on Iran and Syria. Instead, we have all the lefty moonbats in the press and congress salivating over yet another Vietnam-era defeat.

What can we do to change things. Well, that depends on President Bush. Now is the time for President Bush to step up to the bully-pulpit and start laying down the law. Since the anti-war left have such contempt for him and his policies, he should return the favor and show them just how much contempt he has for them. Since the press only reports negative news stories, just think of the feeding frenzy they would go into if President Bush really called all the "anti-surge/anti-war" crowd what they really are, anti-American. The Senator Kerry's of the world would indignantly respond about how nobody can question their patriotism, and then let the President stick it right back to them by stating that hell yes he's questioning their patriotism because anyone who wants anything other than total terrorist-crushing victory in Iraq is anti-American and aiding and abetting the enemy. A few newscycles of the President calling the anti-war crowd to the carpet and telling them to shove their white flags where the sun never shines will start to turn things around. After a year of non-stop critiscim from the President (and the Republicans in Congress who still support the war) would really shut the liberals up.

Unfortunately, our president is a "uniter, not a divider", so I doubt he will really go after the anti-war left like he should. It would be very entertaining to watch the liberals run for cover everything they open their collective pieholes, but it probably won't happen. The president is too afraid of the press to really do what needs to be done, so hopefully, we can get someone with a bit more spine to take on the liberals in 2008. Whether that is Mitt Romney or someone else remains to be seen.