Total victory in Iraq: Dream or nightmare?

John McFarlane is a brave but foolish warrior in his plea for “victory” in for our ‘occupation’ of Iraq (Nothing less than total victory, 2-17-07). My answer to his question “Why can’t you support that victory?” is quite simple.

There is no US ‘military’ victory in Iraq that is possible without us willingly participating in mass murder against either the Sunni or Shite factions (or both).

We have three basic options:
Continue to try and stop the sectarian violence without picking a side and get caught in a thousand year crossfire that even 200,000 more US troops can’t stop.
Pick one side and force the other to capitulate. This would require either direct or indirect support for genocidal activities by the side we pick.
Withdraw US military forces and allow any genocidal activities to burn themselves out, or, replace ourselves with a Muslim army mobilized from nations not neighboring Iraq…and then fully fund their capacity to effectively police a ceasefire and federate the current Iraqi madness.

There is no US ‘military’ victory for Iraq. Not without our soldiers killing more innocent Iraqi's. The dozens of US soldiers interviewed for the documentary movie "Ground Truth" make it painfully clear that US warriors sometimes murder innocent Iraqi's in the fog of war. With already somewhere between 100,000 and 600,000 innocent Iraqis slaughtered by both radical Islamists and as ‘collateral damage’ by coalition forces, any future direct US military involvement in Iraq must stop. Our soldiers performed bravely and brilliantly in defeating Saddam’s army. They have failed in securing the Iraqi peace. Only the Iraqi’s can do that. Leaving Iraq is not ‘defeat’ in the larger war on terrorism if our willing departure inspired more moderate Muslims to join with us in defeating murderous Islamic jihadists world wide. If we force a military ‘victory’ in Iraq…we will only create more terrorists and reduce our capacity to defeat them globally.

Our soldiers were never defeated in Iraq. They were handed orders to conduct an impossible occupation. Someone needs to be held accountable for that murderous tactical and strategic mistake. Bringing the troops back home is the only real way to support them and their greater mission of defending this country against the global spread of terrorism. This will require more allies in the world. Our lethal military occupation of Iraq is only making us more enemies.