How Sunni Insurgents Can Help

IN AN ARTICLE IN SLATE, How Sunni Insurgents Can Help Us In Iraq, Fred Kaplan wrote, "It may well be that many of the U.S. military's missions simply cannot be completed. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, is a highly skilled and creative officer. Some of the most imaginative counterinsurgency specialists are working as his assistants. But sometimes smart people and good strategy can go only so far. An operation also requires sufficient resources and an amenable setting—and those are lacking in Iraq.

"However, as the current campaign in Anbar suggests, we may yet make a go of one of the missions—the destruction of al-Qaida in Iraq. This also happens to be, from the vantage of strict U.S. interests, the most vital mission. The Bush administration's most persuasive argument in the debate on Iraq is that a U.S. pullout would embolden al-Qaida's leaders to broaden their campaign elsewhere."

A pullout would no doubt be viewed as a defeat by al-Qaida, and would help them recruit more zealots to their cause. They are determined to destroy Western civilization, and whether we like it or not, we will have to fight them sooner or later. Our best bet is sooner, and to give them no reason to feel successful.

Read why they are committed to destroying the free world: The Short Answer.