Michael Moore is wrong (again)
This blog isn’t about politics, but a good friend sent me this message, which elicited a response from me that I thought I’d post here.
Lee: You and I have agreed, I believe, that as wrongheaded as it was for the U.S. to invade Iraq, we can’t simply leave now. Have you read Michael Moore’s letter suggesting we do just that? (Click here.) I’m swayed by his argument. What do you think?
No, his argument doesn’t sway me a bit.
First of all, Michael Moore always plays fast and loose with the facts. Does it indeed cost $35,000 to get a cab ride from the airport to the Green Zone, as he claims? I don’t know — probably not — and since he doesn’t offer any citation, I’m going to say almost assuredly not. I wouldn’t base any conclusion upon any facts presented by him.
Even accepting his facts, though (the 71% or whatever who supposedly support insurgency and want us to leave), unilateral disengagement would be even more disastrous than this hunkered-down guerrilla war.
The history of the 20th century (and no doubt farther back) shows that once an occupying force pulls out, another force moves in. Look at Vietnam, to offer just one example. Whom do we think those occupying forces will be? Iran? Syria? If we’re “lucky” it would be Turkey. The odds that a local power base could hold this already fractious “nation” together are slim. It will splinter, and people we don’t like will wind up with more of it.
Add onto that its enormous bounty: Iraq is the world’s fourth-largest repository of oil. Set aside for one moment how much we want that — and think about how much others want that. It’s hard to believe that anyone is going to just let it sit there.
Finally, we made all sorts of promises (again!) to the Kurds and others. We left them to be slaughtered in 1991. Now we would do it again. Perhaps we should not be the policeman of the world, but when you promise to patrol a beat, you owe it to the people who entrusted their safety to you to do it.
We’re not going anywhere soon. We’ve built, I think, 20 FOB’s (forward operating bases) in Iraq. These are huge, huge permanent facilities. Our government, several of our major corporations, and tens of thousands of influential individuals all have enormous investments in these bases and in Iraq. To think we’re pulling out immediately is not only wrongheaded, it’s naive. Even key Democratic leaders like Pelosi and Biden understand this and aren’t promising immediate withdrawal.
Do I think we have tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) more troops to invest, up to the number needed to “win” this war? No. Do I think we should have invaded in the first place? No. But we cannot pull out and allow neighboring terrorist states to control Iraq and its oil deposits and its insurgency and then act upon us elsewhere.