Don't Abandon the Iraqis
EDITORIAL Don't Abandon the Iraqis From time to time, nations face fundamental tests of character. Forced to choose between painful but wise options, and irresponsible ones that offer only...
...Al Qaeda is not our only enemy in Iraq, however...
...Pool players patiently tried to make their shots despite our interruption...
...I spoke with the commander of the 8th Iraqi Army Division in Diwaniyah, Major General Othman...
...The Greatest Generation recovered from the shock of Pearl Harbor and refused to stop fighting until both Germany and Japan had surrendered unconditionally...
...and Iraqi soldiers...
...We will lose this generation not only in Iraq, but throughout the Middle East...
...Nevertheless, I walked through the market with Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, retired General Jack Keane, Colonel Bryan Roberts, the local brigade commander, my wife, Kimberly Kagan, Colonel H.R...
...Al Qaeda does not think Iraq is a distraction from their war against us...
...If we abandon them now, they will be tortured and killed, along with their families, by the militias...
...And a nuclear arms race in which Arab states tried to balance against Iranian power would also be very bad for America...
...We walked through raw sewage in the streets and saw bullet and bomb holes in the buildings...
...They, too, rely on America to help them fight the agents of Iran who seek to defeat us...
...Even in the worst places in Iraq, we have not lost the children...
...When he saw that members of Moktada al-Sadr's Shia militia, the Mahdi Army, had taken control of the city of Diwaniyah, he conducted a large-scale clearing operation with the help of American forces and drove them out...
...Without hesitation, he, too, said: Shia militias...
...But the stakes are even higher than these...
...Al Qaeda claims to have defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and its recruiting rests in part on that boast...
...They still believe that we will honor our commitments to their parents...
...If Iran succeeds in driving America from Iraq, Iranian hegemony in the region is likely...
...The global al Qaeda movement has decided to defeat us there—not merely to establish a base from which to pursue further tyranny and terror, but also to erect a triumphant monument on the ruins of American power...
...General Othman now holds Diwaniyah, where the people can breathe free again, subject neither to that militia nor to any other...
...That is certainly their aim...
...He answered at once: Shia militias...
...When al Qaeda attacks recruiting centers, health clinics, government buildings, and military and police outposts, the Iraqis do not run home...
...Iranian weapons and even advisers flow into Iraq and assist our enemies, both Sunni and Shia, to kill our soldiers and attempt to establish control over Iraq itself...
...But there are reasons to keep fighting even beyond these geopolitical considerations...
...What will happen if we abandon these children...
...If that success is combined with the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon, then Iranian hegemony is even more likely...
...Dominance of the Middle East by this Iranian regime would be very bad for America...
...That is why al Qaeda fighters from across the Muslim world are streaming into Iraq and fighting desperately to retain and expand their positions there...
...We will have lost part of our soul...
...There are few services in these neighborhoods, and IED attacks and killings had been regular features until very recently...
...Everyone will warn their children, "The Americans will only betray you...
...Iran has chosen to fight a proxy war against us there, determined to work our defeat for its own purposes...
...But they continue to need our help...
...Forced to choose between painful but wise options, and irresponsible ones that offer only temporary relief from pain, a people must decide what price they are willing to pay to safeguard themselves and their children and to do the right thing...
...But to my amazement, we also saw children in those streets who did not glare or run or stand dourly as the occupiers passed...
...General Othman stands strongly for an Iraq ruled by law, in which the government holds a monopoly on the use of force, and in which Sunni and Shia are treated equally...
...What will we do...
...For the fact is that the democratic government of Iraq is an ally—and a strong ally—against al Qaeda...
...America has vital national interests in Iraq...
...embassy in Tehran...
...But the most moving scenes were in some of the worst neighborhoods of the city...
...Al Qaeda will attempt to subjugate them...
...old men slammed dominoes on the table triumphantly and tried to get us to play with them...
...Against al Qaeda, Iraqi leaders from government, civil society, the military, and the police are implacable...
...And we will have lost more than our reputation and our ability to protect our interests...
...The Mahdi Army is determined to kill him and his family, and they will do so if we do not continue to support him...
...We will cement our reputation as untrustworthy...
...This Iranian support is not the result of a misunderstanding that could be worked out if only we would talk to the mullahs...
...We walked through a crowded pool hall and past tables of men playing dominoes...
...They run back into the battle, to fight harder...
...Thousands of Sunni Arabs in Anbar, Sala-haddin, Diyala, Babil, and even Baghdad have reached out to the Coalition and the Iraqi government, offering to fight the takfiris, as they call al Qaeda...
...I had the chance to walk through the market near Haifa Street the other day...
...Guided by Abraham Lincoln, we met our greatest challenge during the Civil War and overcame it, despite agonizing doubts about the possibility of success even into 1864...
...The states of the Arabian Gulf are watching closely to see who will win...
...The Iraqi police are known to be infiltrated by Shia militia fighters, but General Qais has molded a force that he uses against those very militias on a daily basis...
...Our uparmored Humvees rolled through Ghazaliyah and Dora, two Sunni neighborhoods heavily infiltrated with al Qaeda and under pressure from Shia militias...
...He is a Shia, commanding a heavily Shia unit in an entirely Shia area...
...They still expect us to deliver them from death and violence...
...In Iskandariyah, I met Major General Qais, the commander of the Babil Province police forces...
...If America flees the field of battle against this foe in Iraq, al Qaeda will have gained an even more powerful recruiting slogan...
...Everyone will know, "Never trust the Americans...
...On a recent trip to Iraq, I saw the human stakes in this struggle...
...Death will stalk them and their families...
...It is the continuation of nearly three decades of cold war between Iran and the United States that began in 1979 with an Iranian attack on the sovereign American soil of the U.S...
...He has put his beliefs to the test of battle...
...There is no turning back for General Othman...
...The American brigade commander was well known to the locals, who greeted us all, "Salaam aleikum, wa aleikum es-salaam...
...A similar moment is upon us in Iraq...
...Even the Sunni Arabs, who once provided al Qaeda safe haven and support, have turned against the terrorists...
...McMaster, and several other American soldiers and civilians...
...Smiling children darted through our group, surrounding us, begging for candy, for my wife's sunglasses, for one of General Odierno's stars ("Just one, please—you have three...
...American forces have not yet finished clearing the neighborhood...
...These are the obvious American stakes in the fight in Iraq, and they are high enough to justify every possible effort to succeed there...
...Across Iraq today, decent people are standing up and identifying themselves...
...Al Qaeda believes Iraq is the central front—and it is...
...America has faced such tests before...
...We cannot allow them to succeed...
...Shia militias will drive them from their homes or kill them...
...Only in January, the streets of this mixed Sunni-Shia neighborhood featured day-long gun fights between al Qaeda terrorists and U.S...
...They are reaching out to us, working with us, and fighting alongside us against our enemies, even against the powerful Shia militias...
...They still look to us with hope...
...With a handful of armed soldiers as escort, and attack helicopters circling overhead to guard against snipers known to be in the area, we walked through the meandering market...
...To imagine that America can lose in Iraq but prevail in the war against jihadism is almost like imagining that we could have yielded Europe to the Nazis but won World War II...
...We will have exposed every decent person in the country to destruction...
...I asked him what was the most serious challenge he faced...
...Thousands of Iraqis have died fighting al Qaeda...
...Anbar Province, whose Marine intelligence officers had virtually given it up only last year, is now lost to al Qaeda...
...Instead they smiled and waved, asking for candy or just saying hello...
...And they and their neighbors, and everyone in the Middle East, will know we left them to their fate...
...They may even so terrorize the people that they are able to establish a home in part of Iraq...
...He has survived attempts on his life, and he and his family are under constant threat...
...If we abandon them, al Qaeda terrorists will barbarically punish those who have opposed them...
...I asked him the same question, What is your greatest challenge...
...Frederick W. Kagan, for the Editors...
...The life of this decent man is in our hands...
Vol. 12 • May 2007 • No. 35
