The President's Iraq Publicity Stunt

Today, the President made a surprise visit to Iraq, spending a number of hours on the ground at Al Asad airbase in Anbar.

Already, some are calling this a publicity stunt. And I couldn't agree more, but for totally different reasons.

First, we must remember that all warfare is psychological.

It is rare for one side to kill ALL of the opposition in a war, almost as rare in a battle. I can't think of an exception to the war rule, and the only two battles that pop into my weak mind are Masada and the Alamo. Also notice that those victories were pyrrhic at best, highly motivating to the "losing" side. Israel is reborn, the Roman empire is dust. And the Alamo is still Texan.

So if not all the opposition is killed, what happens to them? Well, they either surrender or retreat in a battle, or their nation or cause surrenders or just quits fighting.

But why? Because the victor has created conditions in the mind of the loser that those are the only choices: surrender, yield or die.

Before we get to the President's stunt, I find it's always beneficial to look at a war from the enemies point of view.

Al Qaeda, and it's subsidiary, Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) have a major problem. Soldier to soldier, tank to tank (oops, they don't have any), plane for plane (must have forgotten to get those), and ship to ship (Damn, where did that shopping list go?), they have hot been able to beat Coalition forces.

So how can they force us to surrender, yield or die, if they have not much threat of death there? Easy, they use terror. They make the possibility of death retail instead of wholesale. They can't say, "we're going to wipe out the infidel's army, go to their homeland left undefended by that defeated army, and impose our will".

So they make the possibility of death retail. Personal. YOUR death. We'll come over there, plant bombs, and kill YOU. Or your spouse, or child, or your dog if he doesn't bark in Farsi or whatever.

And for them it's working.

Notice that major newspapers won't run the latest "Opus" cartoon, out of fear of offending Muslims.

But how does this work? How do they get their message out? Do they have a reality show we all must watch like "The Jihad World"? Or maybe a sexy Muslim show named "Burqah Watch" with lots of sand and......lots more sand? Or maybe they do a direct mailing to everyone in the non Muslim world? Can you imagine the postage?

No, they do it through the ever present eye of the news media. Just have your group detonate a bomb killing a lot of people and scattering a lot of body parts and the newsies will be there like flies on carrion. And a lot faster than the flies, too.

Col. Jack Warden has it right with our present media, "every bomb is a political bomb". Our enemies know this much better than the average news viewer, and they use it to their advantage.

Now that I've said all the above, let me back up and tell you my point of view. I'm an American in general, southern red-neck Doctor gun toting American specifically. And no, I'm not just a knee jerk American. I want America to win because I love freedom. Want to worship your way, or my way, or no way? Fine. your choice. Want to be straight, gay, bisexual, trisexual, or any other sexual with other consenting adults? Again, you choice. Want to be left, right, center, or upper third picoquadrant? Have at it.

Our enemies don't feel the same way about freedom. If it's Yaweh, you pay. Ladies, you won't have to worry about the latest fashions any more. Black burqahs, in style for over a thousand years. Sharia, the wife beater's dream. (And wife killer's)

So I want us to win. But how do we fight this?

If we kill people, the news media ignores the RPG lying in the masked corpse's hand and calls them "an innocent civilian". Any alleged misdeeds of our troops will be trumpeted by Jack Murtha, or made into feature films by Brian De Palma, bankrolled by Mark Cuban.

So our fine troops do the tedious job of rebuilding a nation into a functioning, cohesive unit. Person by person, block by block, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, town by town, province by province.

But the news media says "if it bleeds it leads". There's no dramatic video of a shopkeeper installing windows since he's confident they won't get blown out or shot up. So they don't show it.

How do we attract a news media seemingly only interested in sensation and blood? Well, the media also follows major politicians around, especially Presidents. Cool, that might help.

Traditionally in war, the sign of the beginning of the end is the capture and securing of the enemy's capitol. Well AQI declared a few years ago that Ramadi, in Anbar province was their capitol. It was the heart of the AQI attacks, and where AQI had the most luck in attempting to incite civil war. Just a year ago, Anbar was given up for lost.

Just a little geography lesson. Al Asad is right near Ramadi, Haditha, Hit, and Fallujah, all in Anbar. These are places made infamous for terrorism, fierce insurgency, and sectarian violence.

But a lot has changed. We have seen the Anbar Awakening. The local tribal chiefs, including many former insurgents, switched sides. The restraint of the Coalition, and the naked brutality and barbarism of AQI convinced them. They have done a stellar job in helping Coalition forces hunt down many of their AQI former comrades. And they've been very successful hunting on their own, thank you very much.

Anbar is now substantially pacified and quiet. We're winning there, and in most of Iraq.

Just about now is a good time to drag some of those White House reporters to see what is really happening in Iraq, not just what they want to hear at the news desk a continent or two away, or in the lobby of a luxury hotel in the Green Zone. Maybe we should tell the world how many lives, especially muslim lives, have been taken by our murderous foes. Maybe we should tell Al Jazeera and the New York Times that all that blood spilled has been wasted. Instead of gaining ground, they are losing it, rapidly. Hell, we took their capitol away, and it's now controlled by locals with coalition help, not by some bearded cave dwelling murderer. It's safe enough for the President to visit there. And we and the locals will not permit them to come back. EVER.

So was the President's trip a publicity stunt? To say we're winning? HELL YEAH, and IT"S ABOUT FRIGGIN" TIME!!

Gladly,

thenakedemperor