A Conservative View on the War

The National Review Online site is about as conservative as it gets. Sometimes it postures as the sane center of conservative thought, sometimes as the looniest in-denial fringe out there. Anyway, I thought the editor's take on the war in Iraq was worth sharing. First he admits that we are seeing a true civil war and that the administration doesn't seem to have a sense of emergency about it. Here is a key paragraph:

The latest plan calls for 3,500 U.S. troops to redeploy from elsewhere in the country — including violent Anbar province — into Baghdad. It seems unlikely either that these troops can be spared from the areas they are leaving or that 3,500 Americans is enough to make a decisive difference in the capital city of nearly 6 million. Once again, the administration seems content with doing just enough perhaps — if it’s lucky — to hold things together, rather than dramatically changing facts on the ground. It might be that achieving the reality of success is being held hostage to maintaining some façade of success. Sending 20,000 more troops to Baghdad might have more effect, but it would also serve to highlight the magnitude of the problem. We find it hard to believe that whatever the question in Iraq is, the answer is always American troop levels of roughly 130,000. Not only would it be politically difficult for the administration to send many more troops, but there is also a strain on the Army and Marines — no matter how many times the Pentagon denies it — in having most of their combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan, or in transit to or from those places.

It concludes this way:

It might be that the situation is simply not salvageable because Iraq’s leaders aren’t up to the daunting challenge facing them. But we have an obligation to try to save the country as long as there is a reasonable chance of doing so. It is time for the Bush administration to acknowledge that its approach of assuring people that progress is being made and operating on that optimistic basis in Iraq isn’t working. It would be much better if it were frankly in crisis mode, as it attempts to save our project in Iraq and tamp down the country’s budding civil war.

Well, at least no one can say that this is a bunch of liberals intent on trashing the noble cause.