Looking Beyond Murtha's Immediate/Practicable Withdrawal

Clifford May, president of the partisan but provocative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, lays bare the silliness of the Murtha proposal in a "Memo to Murtha."

This piece is so terse that a summary is hardly necessary. But as SWNID's gentle readers don't always click the links, we summarize nevertheless:

• Criticism of the administration's planning for the war's aftermath is unfair, given that no one has ever conquered a Middle Eastern dictatorship and transformed it into a democracy before.
• If, as Murtha says, the US military can't stand up to Al Qaida in Iraq, what's to make us think that the Iraqis can?
• We can expect the insurgent elements to take their fight to neighboring countries if allowed to take root in Iraq.
• We can expect mass murders and a huge refugee exodus if we leave Iraq prematurely.
• We can expect little cooperation in the future from other countries with Islamist extremists if we leave Iraq prematurely.

May's two introductory notes in his memo are noteworthy as well:

• He begins by thanking Murtha for his service. This is de rigeur to avoid the charge of denying the patriotism of any D with a military record. Rs can be accused of lying wholesale, but Ds can never be accused of anything, even is that they have made certain statements that are matters of public record. And the failure to acknowledge a D's patriotism or military service is now taken as the denial of it. Call this the "Schmidt Effect."
• He thanks Murtha for taking the debate to the actual conduct of the war rather than the empty charge "Bush lied!" In the present environment, it's noteworthy that any D doesn't repeat this Democrat equivalent of the "Hail Mary" prayer.

And so, SWNID makes the following prognostications in light of l'affaire Murtha:

• In about six weeks, specific proposals for the withdrawal of American forces will begin to come out of the Pentagon in earnest.
• Murtha will be hailed as the prophetic voice that brought these about.
• Those who note from the record that the withdrawal of American forces has been discussed since the first day of the war and planned for in the Pentagon since before then will be ignored, so that Murtha and other naysayers can be lionized.
• Additional pressure will be brought to bear to bring American forces home sooner, with the slogan, "Who will be the last to die for a mistake?" a la John Kerry. Proposals will also be made to reduce military spending and the size of the military.
• The debate will revolve around the prospects for an orderly withdrawal leaving a viable government in Iraq versus a full-scale retreat to cut losses in a "failed" expedition.
• Beyond the debate about the pace of withdrawal from Iraq, a debate will emerge between those who insist that the military be strengthened to fight terrorism and those who say that a strong military provokes terrorism.
• In Congress, a second-millennium equivalent to Senator Frank Church, who in the 70s successfully advocated the abandonment of the South Vietnamese, the reduction of the military and the severe restriction of intelligence agencies, will emerge, vaunted by the MSM as a great military expert and the voice of reason.