What’s even more amazing is that someone with Domenici’s experience – and, often, level-headedness – would decide simply to give up on the effort to stabilize Iraq and in so doing, abandon the opportunity to deal a stunning blow to the forces of Islamofascist terrorism worldwide. To the applause of much of the mainstream media, Domenici justified his decision on the failure of the Iraqi government to meet many of the benchmarks set forth for it by the American government.
By resorting to that rationale a year before his reelection in order to distance himself from the increasingly unpopular Iraq war, Domenici wilfully ignores what is really at stake. What’s happening in Iraq isn’t some innocuous American exercise in nation-building, where the developing nation can simply be abandoned when the going gets tough or the public grows restive.
In fact, in a real sense, the progress (or lack thereof) of the Iraqi government must be a secondary factor in America’s decision whether to continue fighting in Iraq. That’s because our paramount concern is less the details of Iraq’s governance than it is the national security of the United States. The former is relevant only insofar as it impacts the latter. And so long as a withdrawal from Iraq will be construed by our enemies as an emboldening victory for them and a humiliating surrender for us, it’s an option that must remain off the table.
On the Day of Prayer and Remembrance following 9/11, President Bush noted that, “This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.” That’s still true. Let us simply hope that, despite the turnabout of leaders like Pete Domenici, Americans decide to resolve the conflict by defeating our enemies, not by futilely attempting to flee them.
What al Qaeda’s leaders have told us again and again and again is that, for them, Iraq is the central front in the jihadist war against the west. They have spoken as clearly as anyone can. The question is whether all those who scrupulously observe the politically correct niceties when it comes to worldwide Islam will likewise be willing to pay its most violent extremists the ultimate compliment: Taking them seriously, believing that they mean what they say, and responding accordingly.