COIN
Its been 6 years since the attacks on the U.S. Am I going to say anything about them? Nope. Plenty of others will have something to say.
I’ll just say this. A successful Counterinsurgency (COIN) in Iraq and Afghanistan may take a while. COIN is won with not just with bullets and bombs, but with rebuilding the infrastructure and giving medical aid to the local population. Its won by helping the Host Nation (HN) with their police and military work. It may take a while, but success can be had.
Will it succeed if we pull out now? I highly doubt it. That wont be helping the HN to succeed. That will be turning our backs on them and turning them into a future enemy.
What about all the reports of soldiers getting killed? Seems to be thats all we hear about. Where are the reports of the power generators getting put back online. Where are the reports of the towns that now have food shipments thanks to the hard work of the U.S. and Iraqi militaries working together? The mass news doesn’t seem to want to report that because this sort of news doesn’t sell as well as Private Joe Snuffy getting his leg blown off.
We can win this, and by we, I mean the people of Iraq as well as the U.S. We means everyone. Anytime we help create a place where parents don’t have to live in fear that the local “authorities” will be serving their child’s head as a main course to them, the world is better off for it.