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03/30/2003 Archived Entry: "will to fight"

SUICIDE BOMBINGS AND THE WILL TO FIGHT: Let's face it. While war with Iraq has manifestly not been a "cakewalk," and it is going to continue to be very costly and difficult, America has vastly greater military strength and the ability to defeat this enemy. So if you are Saddam Hussein, the only option still available to you is to dig in and try to drive up casualties to the point that the American people will decide that it is not worth it and push for a withdrawal. This is more or less what happened in Vietnam.

Our reliance on air power over the last decade may have fostered the illusion that nearly casualty-free war is possible. In this case, it is clearly not. American casualties will become the antiwar movement's number one argument for a U.S. withdrawal.

However, if the Iraqi regime believes that the monstrous acts of suicide bombings and murdering American and British POWs will facilitate this goal, I believe they are sorely mistaken. When soldiers die in combat, people back home are more likely to ask questions about the rightness of the war and blame the government if they decide the war wasn't worth the loss. But executing unarmed POWs or launching suicide bombing attacks reinforces the public's perception that we are fighting an enemy that needs to be vanquished. Rather than criticize the government for an unjust war, they will expect the government to defeat those responsible and avenge the victims. After 9/11, I do not believe that what has happened to military personnel in Lebanon and elsewhere over the years at the hands of terrorists will be tolerated again.

Not only are Iraqis loyal to Saddam's government behaving in an evil manner - they are acting stupidly even from the perspective of their own self-interest. Which is all the more reason that Saddam is eventually going to fall.