Iraq Redux

Michael Barone examines the choices before us in Iraq and the War on Terrorism and concludes that

any attempts at appeasing them–like the multicultural policies Britain and some European countries have been following–tend to take away our freedoms. Figuring out how to fight back and prevail is not easy and there will be errors along the way (as there have been in all our wars, and in great abundance). But it's better than sitting back and seeing what is the worst they can do to you.

I think that the press and Democrats (Pressocrats?) are starting to realize that Bush may have been right all along and that if they hadn't been so focused on vengeance they might have recognized it. Of course, they'll only cling tighter to their demands that we pull out.

More people are pointing to the Sunni-Shia split as an important factor, after ignoring it for the past 3.75 years. I think that it may be necessary to arrest Muqtada al-Sadr, but I'd be opposed to killing him. I'd like to consider telling them that he'd be released only if his militias submit to the elected government and quit freelancing. They don't like having the U.S. dictating anything to them, but this is one area where we have to, in order to save the country. It's difficult to understand the nuances of strategy in dealing with these folks. Proposing one thing and waiting for a response from al-Sistani is way too cumbersome.