Jules Writes A Jewel

Just read this by Jules Crittenden, A Little War Goes A Long Way. An absolute delight. Ten times so far today I've been to Drudge hoping to read that the bombs have begun to drop. Hasn't happened, but this is sure in the right spirit.

I have to take a little break now, and settle down my over-excited emotions. Then I'll make a comment.

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I can't quote the whole piece, that would be to go beyond fair use; I could quote the whole piece in that it exactly expresses my own thought.

First, there are pragmatic reasons for war: We can't win in Iraq unless we cleanup the surrounding infection. We should have taken out Iran two weeks after Saddam's statue fell. Syria should be next.

Iran has been meddling with murderous results in Iraq and Lebanon, two countries it prefers to see wracked with war and instable. Iran has declined to cease and desist. Iran wants to force us out of Iraq in the most humiliating way possible. Iran wants to dominate Iraq and Lebanon. It wants to use them as part of its plan to encircle and ultimately destroy Israel. It wants to control as much of the world’s oil supply as it can. It has been working aggressively and criminally toward those ends for decades. Therefore, it is time to take this opportunity to reduce Iran’s capacity to make war. Its nuclear sites, its military facilities. The roads and bridges it uses to transport the materiel and personnel of its demonic foreign policy. It is an opportunity the Iranians are giving us, on a platter. It is not clear to me why we are not taking it.

And there are reasons of spirit that are reasons for war. The Muslim world has no weapon that can stand against us but spirit. By our dilly-dally we strengthen them. If we attack it will mute that ardor. It won't change the personality. What Muslims do is kill people who don't agree with them, and that isn't going to change, but at least it will make them a wet noodle for awhile, and it sure will make me feel good... and millions of millions of others. To feel encouragement is to have strength.

I like this statement:

President Bush can explain it all after he launches the attack.

This is what is called "right on". Nothing succeeds like success. At the present time to discuss an attack before the attack would be an impossibility, America has too many enemies in the United States Congress; but after an attack, which would be devastatingly effective, that party of Defeat and Withdrawal would find most of the public no longer attracted to what then would be meaningless advice.

There is the constant concern with the lives of the British sailors. That's what makes them "hostages".

But this is not really about whether 15 British sailors and marines are freed, or placed on trial or live or die. There are a lot of military men and women being killed these days. Many of them by Iran....

There are those who think the sailors may be harmed if we take forceful action. That may be. Iran needs to be made aware that that would be extremely unwise course of action. But in war, there are sometimes casualties, and the fate of millions of people in wartime cannot be held hostage by concern for a handful of sailors and marines.

In war, you can not have hostages, you can only have warriors, and warriors live in danger; it's the business they're in. To be enraged if, as captives, they are harmed, would be necessary; but to refuse action because they are captive is not to be a nation, it's to be a defeated people. And this very much is the problem: we don't consider victory a matter of pride, one nation against another. Pride is considered small, we're "better than that", we're concerned for each and every life; but if in fact one nation is willing to accept that some of its citizens will die for something called "national pride" or "national interest" or "love of nation" and the other is not, then there is no doubt at all which will finally win.

Well, this is enough. If I keep writing I'll just repeat the whole article. I could close with this, it's Crittenden's response to the fear "But what if we make them mad?"

If Iran chooses to respond in bellicose fashion, that really won't represent much of a change. A conventional response by massed Iranian forces would be entertaining.

Hope this Crittenden post gets a lot of discussion.