Children greet a U.S. soldier of Alpha Troop, 3-89 CAV while on patrol in central Baghdad’s Fadhil district, April 16, 2008.
REUTERS/Erik De Castro

This is a long post, as I’ve combined 3 items together which I feel have a related theme in them; namely, why we need to persevere and “stay the course” in Iraq; why it is the right thing to do. As Arthur Herman writes in the WSJ (a shorter version of a piece he wrote for Commentary Magazine, Who Owns the Vietnam War?), after drawing the correct lessons from Vietnam (which 2 of the 3 presidential candidates have failed to do),

The judgment of history, as Raymond Aron once remarked, is without pity. History will judge how America and its leaders handle global responsibility in Iraq and the Middle East in the next decade.

As Winston Churchill said of the appeasement of Hitler at Munich, in 1975 Americans were “weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

We have a responsibility to the Iraqis – and to the memory of those we left behind – not to let that happen again.

Please take the time to read the following three stories. One is from an Iraqi blog, the 2nd is Hugh Hewitt’s interview with Michael Yon this past week, and the third is from a NYTimes Baghdad Bureau employee who escaped to Syria, but has since returned to Baghdad, not quite sure whether to believe the stories he heard, that the situation there has improved…
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Black GOLD

Yes, as oil prices are now past $120 a barrel, market watchers are now looking foward to $200 barrel oil, it’s causes and effects.

LINK

Maybe it’s because of all the Bush Derangement Syndrome rantings that have left my eyes in a near-permanent rolling motion, but I have to wonder:

If the Iraq War was all about oil [can I get a "NO BLOOD FOR OIL"?], then what will have the more devastating effect on oil prices next year: staying in Iraq and stabilizing the place, or retreating and letting it collapse?

Lord help me, but…I don’t see “Iraq” anywhere in this article.  Could it be [COULD IT BE?!] that the war in Iraq isn’t about oil?  Could Operation Iraqi Freedom be about Freedom?  I know, it’s crazy talk, but the coffee’s strong this morning, so I wonder, while the candidates are whining and pandering and bribing their way to nomination (abomination?), what idea addresses the cost of oil in 2009 best:

• a gas tax holiday
• a windfall profits tax on any company that makes too much money (oil companies to start with, computers to follow?)
• staying in Iraq to stabilize it
• retreating from Iraq and gambling on its collapse (if it does collapse post withdrawal, there is no doubt at all that a subsequent third invasion would be infinitely more costly in blood, treasure, and duration)
• Or perhaps something else?

What’s the best thing the next President can do to keep oil from reaching $200 barrel next year, and what’s the best course in Iraq given the prospect of $200barrel oil?

Additionally, what should the next President do in terms of Iran given the prospect of $200 barrel oil next year?

I just learned about Mark Metherell through Hugh Hewitt:

Mark Metherell was a Wheaton graduate, a former Navy SEAL, and a civilian training the Iraqi Security Forces when the evil guys got him and his trainees in an IED attack in Baghdad.

I have met some of Metherell’s extended family over the years in Orange County, california. He is part of an extraordinary band of servant leaders, and his commitment to the new Iraq does not surprise given the family in which he was raised. He was a graduate of Wheaton College, and at the memorial site his friends have created for his wife and little girl, his platoon commander from SEAL Team Five has written a memorial that you ought to read.

It is so obvious from the memorial site that Mark Metherell was back in Iraq because he loved the Iraqi people and wanted them to remain free. He is an example of the very best that our country produces, and the piece by Michael Yon in Friday’s Wall Street Journal on the extraordinary progress being made in Iraq is a testament to the significance of the sacrifice made by Mark Metherell and his family.

Do read the Michael Yon, WSJ piece and spread it around, by email, by flyer, by word-of-mouth.

What? Too lazy to click the link? Maybe this teaser will help:

when David Petraeus came to town it was senators – on both sides of the aisle – who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about “GoArmy.com.”

From his former SEAL platoon commander’s post:

Many times I thanked God for Mark- and this was before I became a Christian. He was always unflappable, always on top of things, never complaining, always upbeat and ready for anything. The nicest guy in the world but tough as nails. I later came to realize that a big reason he was different was his Christian faith. He was down to earth, easy going, but at the same time his actions were without reproach, both on and off the job. I’ve had several friends who were killed in the past 6 years, but hearing about Mark hit me particularly hard. He was a great man, a shining light in a dark world, and will be missed.

This forum pointed me to a temporary blogsite and website dedicated to his memory.

The memorial service for Mark will be at Mariners Church in Irvine, California this coming Saturday, April 19th, at 10am in the main sanctuary. Please visit http://www.marinerschurch.org/ for directions.

The family has requested that people attending the service dress casually, NO SUITS, and if you must wear shoes, please wear flippity floppities, or flip flops as they are commonly called.

A paddle-out at Brooks Street to Second Reef in honor of Mark is planned for Saturday around 4pm. Please meet at the Vanderveen’s home, 494 Brooks Street, with your board or at least a set of trunks (we have some extra surfboards) to help us remember Mark in the water on a reef he knew well.

The family has asked that donations in honor of Mark be made to either:
1. Naval Special Warfare Foundation: http://www.nswfoundation.org—This is a fund for the widows and orphans of Navy Special Forces veterans killed while serving their country

If I can get time off from work, I’d very much like to pay my respects there. Please check out the website. It is full of details on the life of a man who represented and embodied the best of who we are as a nation.

By way of Michael Totten:

Saman Kareem Ahmad is an Iraqi Kurd who worked as a translator with the Marines in Iraq’s Anbar Province. He was one of the few selected translators who was granted asylum in the U.S. because he and his family were singled out for destruction by insurgents for “collaboration.” He wants to return to Iraq as an American citizen and a Marine, and has already been awarded the Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal and the War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal. Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter and General David Petraeus wrote notes for his file and recommended he be given a Green Card, but the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) declined his application and called him a “terrorist.”

The INS says Ahmad “conducted full-scale armed attacks and helped incite rebellions against Hussein’s regime, most notably during the Iran-Iraq war, Operation Desert Storm, and Operation Iraqi Freedom” while a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).

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Michael Totten writes:
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For quite some time now, I’ve been feeling more and more like a radical center-right extremist, alienated from my hard-lined rightwing militant allies. Whether it’s over John McCain’s apostasy, Barack Obama’s middle name, or on Islam, I feel like those who navigate through the blogosphere are sailing through a world of hyberbole and emotional venting; and of militant partisanship. I used to see it all the time coming from the left- Daily Kos, DU, Think Progress, Air America. But now I am acutely aware of the vitriol that comes from my side of the spectrum. And ultimately, I think it harms the conservative movement and in our credibility. Read the rest of this entry »

ARTICLE: Two Winnable Wars

By Anthony H. Cordesman
No one can return from the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, as I recently did, without believing that these are wars that can still be won. They are also clearly wars that can still be lost, but visits to the battlefield show that these conflicts are very different from the wars being described in American political campaigns and most of the debates outside the United States.

Blaming weak governments or trying to rush them into effective action by threatening to leave will undercut them long before they are strong enough to act.Any American political leader who cannot face these realities, now or in the future, will ensure defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Any Congress that insists on instant victory or success will do the same. We either need long-term commitments, effective long-term resources and strategic patience — or we do not need enemies. We will defeat ourselves.

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February 12, 2008: U.S. Army Staff Sgt. William Lambert, 30, of Plainview, Ark, shows photographs of his children to Iraqi children in Beijia, south of Baghdad. By Maya Alleruzzo, AP

Amy Proctor:
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photo by Michael Totten

Along with Bill Ardolino’s series, Inside Iraqi Politics, the other excellent read is Michael Totten’s The Final Mission Part III. According to Totten, we are scheduled to hand back security control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi government, provided all goes well and the violence continues to decline as Iraqi security forces continue to be trained. One would think that if all these insurgents and Islamic holy warriors wanted is to have American and Coalition “invaders” to be expelled from Iraq, they’d just desist with the violence, and it would automatically happen. Hugh Hewitt writes,

Michael Totten has another fascinating write-up, this one of the Marines’ effort to teach human rights to Iraqi police in Fallujah, as well as on the need for journalists and writers of all types to humanize both Iraqis and Americans.

Don’t forget to consider leaving a little something in the PayPal tip jar. Michael Totten could use the support.

Also, Michael Yon: AQI Losing Habitat in Iraq at Alarming Rate

And Bill Roggio: Al Qaeda in Iraq under pressure in Balad, Anbar
Iraqi, US forces capture senior Special Groups operative in Hillah

Read the accounts, and send the links on to your friends and enemies. You’ll be doing everyone a favor.

We Americans (at least most of us) believe that God gives all human beings certain inalienable rights, that everyone is created equal, and that among these rights are the right to live, to live in a government that derides its power from the consent of the people, and the right to pursue our own happiness. These rights do not just belong to people who are lucky enough to have been born to legal citizens of the U.S. living between two great oceans, S of Canada, and N of Mexico. They are rights that belong to all human beings.

Sometimes, some Americans can lose that perspective. They can blow off the tyranny and terror that is cast upon other human beings as a means of influencing our own political will (recall that war is defined as one nation imposing its political and/or economic will upon another through violent means).

Perhaps this recollection of last week’s events in the war against Islamic holy warriors will make those people remember that those rights mentioned earlier are not American rights, but human rights. The following events really did happen last week:

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Scott Southworth, right, is seen with his adopted son, Ala’a, July 19, 2007, in the home in Mauston, Wis. Southworth first met Ala’a, who has cerebral palsy, at the Mother Teresa orphanage in Baghdad in 2003 while he was serving in Iraq.
(AP Photo/Andy Manis)

This is just such a great, heartwarming story. 

Spread the news to all your friends.  Especially those who only want to highlight the abu ghraib scandals; and slander our men and women serving over in Iraq as killers, rather than see them as defenders of freedom and life.  It’s also a testament to the positive power of religiosity, for those secular extremists who think “Jesus Camp” equates to “the religious right”.

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