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Jan. 8, 2009

Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Arab regimes secretly rooting for Israel?

Larry Elder: Israelis and Palestinians: Who's David, Who's Goliath?

Jeff Jacoby: Yes, it's anti-Semitism

Jan. 7, 2009

Jonah Goldberg: Who are the real Nazis?

Anne Applebaum: Pointless Peace Proposals

Jan. 6, 2009

Caroline B. Glick: Iran's Gazan diversion?

Dennis Prager: Dissecting Dershowitz

Jan. 5, 2009

Mark Steyn: Gaza has its version of rocket scientists

Mona Charen: The So-called International Community

Jan. 2, 2009

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: Having a holy tongue

Caroline B. Glick : Hamas' march to victory

Dec. 31, 2008

Dore Gold: Is Israel Using 'Disproportionate Force'?

Renee Enna:: Succulent 'stewp' is quick, easy fix

Dec. 30, 2008

Jonathan Mark: Israel's Response Is Disproportionate

Wesley Pruden: It's time once more to blame the Jews

Dec. 29, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Chanukah: 'Give me Judaism or give me death'

Michael B. Oren: A crisis and an opportunity

Dec. 26, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: When the past meets the future

Caroline B. Glick: Iran and Hamas do Christmas

Dec. 24, 2008

Rabbi Dovid Zauderer: Judaism's Santa problem

The Kosher Gourmet by Ethel G. Hofman CHANUKAH FORK-FINGER FOOD FEAST

Dec. 23, 2008

Caroline B. Glick: Repeating failure in Gaza

Dec. 22, 2008

Rabbi Boruch Leff: Too many Jews today are missing the intended purpose of one of Judaism's most beloved holidays

Barry Rubin: Liar, liar, pants on cease-fire

Dec. 19, 2008

Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Final Battlefield

Caroline B. Glick: Betting on a dead horse

Dec. 18, 2008

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: Juicy Chef's hella top, hella bottom, hallelujah in the middle

Craig Crossman : More gifts for geeks --- and those who love them

Dec. 17, 2008

Dion Nissenbaum: Israel kicks out outrageously biased UN official

Craig Crossman : Gifts for geeks --- and those who love them

Dec. 16, 2008

Jonathan Rosenblum: The Gift of Joy

Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Uncle Shariah

Dec. 15, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Expert witnesses who put themselves first

Barry Rubin: What they say isn't what you hear

Dec. 12, 2008

Rabbi Hillel Goldberg: Can the Bible be a secular language?

Caroline B. Glick: What a PM Netanyahu faces from Washington

Dec. 11, 2008

Rabbi Leiby Burnham: Our role in the Divine's global corporation, World Inc.

The Kosher Gourmet by Steve Petusevsky: A retro-tasting pareve pot pie made with a light hand

Dec. 10, 2008

Rabbi Paysach J. Krohn: Groom admits he was caught "red handed"

Kara McGuire: No money for gifts? No problem

Dec. 9, 2008

The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Can I make my boss treat me fairly?

Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Next Steps in the Indo-Pakistani Crisis

Dec. 8, 2008

Rabbi Avi Shafran: 'Chanukah Bush' flap and graciousness

Mark Steyn: Jews get killed, but Muslims feel vulnerable

Dec. 5, 2008

Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Truth --- The Key to Gratitude

Jeff Jacoby: UN's obsession is grotesque and Orwellian

Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review June 30, 2005 / 23 Sivan, 5765

Iraq debate in transition

By Tony Blankley


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | One can contrast people in many ways: the fat and the thin, the rich and the poor, those who play the tuba and those who don't. In assessing the opinions of our Iraq policy, perhaps the most useful dichotomy is of those who consider the consequences of acts and those who don't. In that regard, special attention should be given to the opinions of Sen. Edward Kennedy and some of the other war critics who are calling for a prompt departure.

It is a well-established principle of developmental psychology that young children have no sense of cause and effect. They live in a magical world in which things just seem to happen. They don't understand that if you pull a gun's trigger, a bullet will come out. They don't even understand the finality of death. Things just seem to appear, disappear and re-appear.

In fact, the earliest perception of cause and effect turns out to be a false one. Babies cry, and a mother brings them milk. They cry, and a mother brings them a blanket. They are thirsty, and water is brought to them. They cry, and a mother changes their nappy. Thus the immature mind develops the magical idea that the physical world can be manipulated by merely wishing for something.

But usually by 5 or 6, and certainly by 8 or 9, the human mind comprehends cause and effect, and tries to do things in the present that will cause a desired future fact to come into being. Thus the mature mind tends to think largely about the future.

And then there is Ted Kennedy and the exit strategy crowd. They mock, ridicule and criticize the president's war effort but have never described the consequences of their own policy of prompt withdrawal of troops. Like the immature attitude of a young child, they don't like the current circumstances in Iraq (as who does?) and simply want to wish it away, with no consideration to the effect of such an action.

There are, in fact, valid grounds to criticize both the president's war effort and his speech Tuesday night. While everything he said was fine, he continues not to discuss with the public why more of the same strategy will get a better result. While he justifies his current troop levels on the advice of his field commanders, ultimately, it is the president's decision. Many informed people suspect that the generals are afraid to request more troops, because they don't think the president wants to hear that. Whether that is the case or merely a nasty Pentagon rumor, we clearly don't have enough troops to take and hold enemy territory, such as Fallujah, where we lost several Marines last week — even though it had been cleared of terrorists several months ago. The president owes the country more than bromides. He needs to publicly discuss, with some regularity, why and how the causes he is bringing into being will have the effects that we all hope for.

But his fundamental policy — that we must stay until the Iraqis can take charge because the effect of premature departure would be far worse than the status quo — has not only not been refuted, it hasn't even been challenged. Almost all his critics simply don't discuss the effects of their policy — except, finally, the New York Times.

In a conceptually jumbled yet admirable editorial yesterday, the NY Times actually described their view of the likely consequence of an early exit: "The president does not have any good options available, and if American forces were withdrawn, Iraq would probably sink into a civil war that would create large stretches of no man's land where private militias and stateless terrorists could operate with impunity."

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It is left unstated, but a reasonable inference to draw from that assessment is that it would be a safe haven for terrorists with designs on attacking America. I would add a further likely effect of withdrawal to be to vastly encourage bin Laden and the entire jihadist movement around the world. Seeing cowardice in our running away from Iraq, they would be both more contemptuous of us and more motivated to savage us here at home.

Let Ted Kennedy and his allies rebut the New York Times's assessment of the consequences of Kennedy's policy proposal, and we might actually have the beginning of a rational, forward-looking policy debate — instead of a screaming match.

Near the end of the N.Y. Time's editorial, they wrote a sentence they should have written two years ago — but thank G-d they have finally written it. They endorsed a letter that "urged the American left to get over its anger over President Bush's catastrophic blunder and start trying to figure out how to win the conflict that exists. No one wants a disaster in Iraq."

While I reject many side points in the editorial and certainly don't consider the Iraqi war to be a blunder at all, The New York Times' call to the Democrats to end the anger and start thinking rationally about a successful future in Iraq, if heeded by the Democrats, could turn out to be an historically more import utterance than the president's speech.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Tony Blankley is editorial page editor of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.


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