Rumsfeld's Resolve

For what is normally a very courageous Editorial page, I was disappointed to see the Intermountain Jewish News regurgitate the same, old, anti-Rumsfeld platitudes of the ‘Chicken-Little Left’ in its (11/17/06) What we have wrought in Iraq missive.
While the American Military and Bush Administration have been making difficult decisions in real-time, its critics and now the IJN, display all the arrogance of Monday morning quarterbacks. Despite having the benefit of hindsight, these geniuses have no idea whether the conditions in Iraq would have been better; if there had been more American troops deployed, whether Paul Bremmer had let the Baathists remain in charge or if Rumsfeld’s resignation had been accepted two months or two years earlier.
Absent from the IJN editorial is any mention of the ferocity and resolve of our enemies, the 30 years of majority Shi’ite oppression at the hands of Sunnis or the persistent efforts of the Iranian and Syrian governments to infiltrate and undermine the fledgling Iraqi democracy and Coalition security forces.
Despite labeling the Administration as “incompetent” and divining that Rumsfeld and President Bush “live in their own imaginary kingdom”, the IJN fails to present any coherent alternative plan for action in Iraq. Meanwhile, al Qaida is totally committed to driving the West out of Iraq and the Entire Middle East and takes heart every time they see another American institution, media or constituency abandon our Commander-in-Chief.
Personally, with Syria and Hezbollah assassinating Lebanese leaders and Iran threatening the nuclear destruction of Israel, I like having a significant American military presence based in Iraq and Afghanistan rather than 8,000 miles ‘off-shore’ in Korea. As a Jewish American, I like knowing that Israel is not standing alone against a wave of militant, anti-Semitic, Islamo-Fascism and would venture to guess that most Iraqis feel the same.