Wrong war in the wrong place

Posted: September 15, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

In making the case for staying the course in Iraq, the White House has begun invoking the specters of Somalia and Lebanon.

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KEY QUOTES:

"Our smashing of Iraq and our huge military footprint there now have turned millions of Muslims against us and forced friendly Arab regimes into making a painful choice: Side with America and face the resentment of your countrymen, or separate and risk alienating the superpower upon whom your survival depends."

"By sending an American army to occupy Baghdad, the seat of the caliphate for 500 years, we played into al-Qaida's hands. We are where they want us. We are where they can get at us. We are where they can kill us on their timetable, on their own turf."

"When we march in, the neocons assured him, we will be welcomed as liberators, Muslim nations will fall like dominoes to democracy and peace will reign in the Mideast."

"Now we are in a sand trap. And the question the president and Congress must answer is: Do we go in deeper? Do we pour in whatever money and blood are needed to fight on to victory in a land where we are not loved and where the enemy can fight the kind of war Islamic warriors have fought successfully against the French in Algeria, the Russians in Afghanistan and the Israelis in Lebanon."

"Whether Iraq is a democracy or dictatorship isn't our concern. Our concern should be: Does Iraq threaten America's vital interests? Before our invasion, we now know, it did not."

"But, like a bad marriage, the mistake was going in, in the first place, and now, there is no easy way out. If we pull out, Iraq could become a failed state and a haven for Islamic warriors. If we stay and fight, we may be plunging into an endless or unwinnable war."