The Just Course is Never Easy
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Over the past week a furor has swept the media regarding a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report that described, among other things, the connection between Iraq and the spread of terrorism.
One New York Times headline proudly stated “Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat.” The article, dated September 23, mentions that a classified NIE report mentioned that the war in Iraq has increased the “jihad ideology.”
There is no mention of the fact that the report also states that “should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.”
When you break it down into simple words, it is saying that it is in the United States’ best interest to stay in Iraq and win. A victory for the terrorists would just exacerbate the situation and embolden the extremists.
I don’t want to delve into why The New York Times fails to mention this part of the report, but the article was written before President George W. Bush declassified a summary of the report, so either the government sources leaking the report did not want us to know that we should stay the course in Iraq, or the Times did not want us to know.
The most interesting thing about this story is not that we were not told that winning the War on Terrorism is good for us, but that it is ground-breaking news to know that invading Iraq would cause an increase in radical extremists.
Anyone who thought that we could invade Iraq and not infuriate some portion of the global population is just plain naïve. I, for one, knew that going into Iraq would not make the terrorists like us, but it was a necessary step.
This is the nature of the war we are fighting. Most of us knew 3 and a half years ago that the day the statue of Saddam Hussein fell would not be the worst day in the war. It was not a magical statue that would make everything get better immediately.
It was a sign: a sign that one stage is over and a new one was beginning. It is a stage where the war would get worse before it would get better. The steps to victory would make the enemy stronger, but this is a short-term side effect of our victories. Eventually, with our victories. they will get weaker. Until then, we must stay strong and know in our hearts that we are making the lives of millions of people better, and in the process making ourselves safer.
On September 12, 2001, nobody said that this journey we were then beginning to undertake was going to be easy, and nobody is saying now that it will be easy. The just course is never easy.
