Freedom's Fidelity

Monday, January 19, 2004

Another Suicide Attack

This one happened yesterday morning in Baghdad as the Chicago Tribune reports:

The blast at 8 a.m. could be heard for miles. It apparently was timed to coincide with the arrival of hundreds of Iraqi workers who have jobs with the occupation authority and who line up each morning outside the walls of the heavily barricaded compound for security checks. Sunday is a work day in Iraq.

Much like Saddam Hussein, the resistance seems to be really good at targeting and killing ordinary Iraqis, especially those that are simply going to work. The idea is and has been to cause instability, put U.S. troops on a hair trigger, and intimidate everyday citizens in hope of eventually causing the coalition to withdraw. That is not going to happen, there is way too much at stake in Iraq, the price of less than total victory is much too high, as the Belmont Club notes:

Both the Boeing B-17 and B-29 were designed as precision daylight bombers, intended as "smart weapons" that would destroy enemy strength without causing collateral damage. By end of the war, the B-29 had been modified from its original mission into an area attack role, burning out every major Japanese city with firebombs and, in the end, delivering the atomic bomb.

There is an old military maxim which holds that if a war is prolonged enough, the two sides will come to resemble each other. It is a recognition that a prolonged, indecisive struggle is often more brutal than victory. Thanks to the 'peace lobby', victory is now an evil, a triumphalistic phenomenon, to be avoided at all costs. In its stead, they will require the alternative: the slow and growing encrustation of human soul, until, in the fullness of time, it resembles their own.

It can be difficult at times to not get discouraged, to not think that "maybe the bad guys will win." After all, it doesn't take more than a handful of nut jobs to pull off a suicide bombing. But then I come across something like this. (Be sure and scroll to the bottom - start reading under the Wilson football pic) The sadness, anger, and finally hope that pushed through me brought tears to my eyes and an some optimism to my heart. It really is the little things.

posted by Paul  permalink | |