President Bush was right to declare yesterday in Latvia that he will not withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq until the “mission is complete” because “we can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren.” It appears Bush’s characteristic Texas stubbornness is the only thing standing between victory and the U.S. defeat that has all but been proclaimed by Washington’s foreign policy establishment and its friends in the mainstream media like “60 Minutes” reporter Lara Logan. She insisted in her weekend interview with Gen. John Abizaid that “managing the defeat” is America’s only option.
It is to be hoped that Bush’s main target with yesterday’s declaration was his father’s former Secretary of State, James Baker, head of the soon-to-be-sainted Iraq Study Group. The ISG is widely reported to be preparing a recommendation that Bush seek the aid of Iran and Syria in resolving the war in Iraq. Iran and Syria may be U.S. opponents, but they have a common interest with us in establishing a stable regime in Baghdad, we are told by the Foggy Bottom Realpolitikers and the media experts for whom NBC’s decision to call it a civil war represents a “Cronkite Moment.”
Such advice is worse than wrong-headed, it is a denial of reality. Iran and Syria have one primary interest — U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and ultimately out of the entire Middle East. So much is clear from the daily pronouncements of the Terhran Mullahs, led by the Iranian strongman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the long-standing refusal of the Baathist regime controlling Syria to stop expediting the inflow of foreign fighters to Iraq to kill Americans and foment civil unrest between Iraq’s Sunni minority and the Shiite majority. The only stability Iran seeks in Iraq is the kind made possible by the sort of puppet regime Ahmadinejad wants in Baghdad. This is why Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Iraq’s President Jalal Talibani yesterday that Iran will send troops if requested to do so by Iraq.
There is another crucially important denial of reality akin to the “managing defeat” syndrome. Evidence is rapidly accumulating that major Western media organizations are being had on a daily basis by the propaganda efforts of the Jihadist insurgency. A frequently appearing source in Iraq stories from AP, Reuters and other mainline news organizations is “Capt. Jemil Hussein” of the Iraqi police. Hussein was the main source in the Nov. 24 story claiming six Iraqi civilians were burned alive by insurgents outside a mosque. Hussein is one of 14 questionable sources with Middle Eastern names identified by the U.S. military in news stories from Baghdad reporting growing chaos and allegations of U.S. atrocities.
U.S. military authorities have told AP that Hussein is not employed by Iraqi police and requested a correction since there is no evidence to support his allegation of the six people being incinerated alive. A statement on the issue is expected from U.S. Central Command, pending a response from AP. The bigger issue is the extent to which the credibility of news reports from Iraq has been undermined by the insurgency’s many “Capt. Jemil Husseins” and the deceptive image they seek to create among Western readers of growing chaos, civil war and ultimate futility of the U.S. effort in Iraq.
