Written by: Anonymous

In response to Answerman:

Sure criticism of the war effort is important and valid. What is not good is a one-sided and self-defeating focus on our failures.

Answerman worries that we have exhausted our options in the broader war on terrorism because of the drain created by the Iraqi war. But what is the biggest source of the drain? Are we really drained physically? Are 800 casualties (as terrible as they are) really enough to drain a nation of 300 million?

Yes we are stretched thin physically, but where we are dangerously drained is in our collective will.

The true irony of what Answerman has written is that he is part of the phenomenon causing this drain. His inability to countenance the idea that we might actually be succeeding on the ground and his desire to see disaster and failure in our efforts in Iraq help create the problem he worries about.

We know that a large part of the American media and legislature is out to sink the war. To still win it, those of us who once supported it must not be so quick to declare it a failure.

Answerman makes some valid criticisms. What he doesn't seem to realize though, is the fact that this is primarily a pyschological war. Consequently, he doesn't recognize that the defeatist attitude now embraced by many of the war's supporters is more dangerous than even the "simplisticism" of the neo-Con's.

So Answerman - please continue to criticise. Just don't try to argue that harping on our failures, ignoring our successes, and declaring failure doesn't help the terrorists. I am sorry, but it does. That's what they are counting on. That's their chance for success.




For an administrative point, Answerman says in his responses to my post that he simply criticised some aspects of the war. What he actually did, if you care to scroll down that far, is argue that the war has been such a failure that it has worsened the war on terrorism and hurt our chances of winning it.

If Answerman had instead limited his arguments by saying that he thinks we made some serious errors in judgment, but that we are still succeeding in Iraq nonetheless, then I would be in almost perfect agreement with him.