Dear Senator Durbin
Dear Senator Durbin:
I wanted to talk with you about the two soldiers who were captured, and apparently tortured and mutilated in Iraq. I heard that you said that this is a reminder of the price we pay for our failed policies in Iraq. Senator Durbin, which failed policies are you referring to? If these boys were captured, tortured, and killed as a result of failed policies, then there must be some significant failures you could point to.
- Did we fail to rid Iraq, and the world, of a hideous dictator?
- Did we fail to guide the Iraqis through the throes of forming a constitutional democracy?
- Did we fail to help them form a government?
- Did we fail to improve their economy?
- Did we fail to prevent further terrorist attacks here at home?
- Did we fail to decapitate the terrorist leadership in Iraq? (Note that I use the term figuratively rather than than with the literal interpretation that our enemies use.)
- Did we fail to change the regime in Afganistan, and deprive our enemy of its primary base of training and operation?
- Did we fail to train the Iraqis to begin to take responsibility for their own security?
Senator Durbin, there are a few things I think we have failed at.
- Initially we failed to understand how hard we’d have to fight. This is in spite of the fact that the president told us that the war on terror would be long and hard. We failed to understand what he seemed to understand.
- We failed to maintain perfect professionalism in every case, thus giving rise to the embarassing moments at Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo.
- We failed to rev up the Iraqi security forces early enough.
And there are likely a few other mistakes and failures that we made along the way. But I’m confused, because these failures don’t seem to be what the two boys paid for. It seems to me that the two boys gave their lives for the lives and liberties of Americans and Iraqis. The price, Senator Durbin, is horrific. But we’ve always known the price of liberty is high. Those boys understood that.
Senator Durbin, it was not our policies that killed those young boys. It was not our policies that tortured and mutilated them. It was our enemies who did those things, Senator Durbin. It was the enemies of all free people everywhere. It was people who blow up shopping malls and weddings. It was people who hide bombs by the side of the road. It was people who fly airplanes into buildings. These people are the enemy of civilization. They are YOUR enemy, Senator Durbin, and they are mine. And they were the enemy of those two brave boys who paid the price that must be paid to rid the world of enemies like that.
Senator Durbin, what was the failed policy that led to the enemy’s attrocities against these two boys? The only policy I can imagine that might have prevented their fate, is a policy of surrender. Because if we fight them, Senator Durbin, then sometimes they are going to hurt us. Is that your solution then, Senator Durbin? Shall we leave Iraq? Shall we walk away from the job and surrender Iraq to our enemies? Is that what you think of as a successful policy?
We tried that once in Viet Nam. Do you remember, Senator Durbin, how we walked away from our allies? Do you remember how we promised to protect them, and then ignored that promise as the enemy swarmed over the friends we had sworn to protect. Do you remember the killings and the torture, and the genocide? Was that a successful policy?
No, I fear that the true failure here, Senator Durbin, is a failure of leadership. Yours, and Senator Kerry’s, and Senator Murtha’s, and so many others who have used our national security as a pawn to gain political advantage. You try to make success look like failure. You demean the honorable sacrifice of our troops by telling them they are executing a failed policy; when in fact they are doing a wonderful job and SUCCEEDING. You abuse the families of the fallen by implying that their sacrifice was in vain.
It is your policies that have failed, Senator Durbin. And I can only hope and trust that those policies of surrender will never get a chance to be tried again.
