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The Iraq Solution Philip V. Brennan Nuts! When the Germans called upon the beleaguered American forces at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, U.S. Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe's reply was one word: "Nuts!"
Since everybody else is busy forming study groups and committees to consider the various options available to us in the Iraq debacle I decided to set up my own committee to look at the whole situation and come up with recommendations.
I asked the late Gen. McAuliffe to chair the group, which consists of Gen. George Patton, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Marine Gen. Chesty Puller, Gen. Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Marine Sgt. Maj. Dan Daly, Gen. William T. Sherman, and co-chair Gen. George Washington.
I asked them to consider America's current situation in Iraq which I summarized as follows: The U.S. is bogged down in Iraq, seemingly unable to quell the out-of-control sectarian violence occurring alongside a terrorist insurgency fueled by al-Qaida, former members of the Baathist regime, Iran and it's puppet regime in Syria.
Complicating the situation is the seeming inability, or just plain refusal of the Iraqi government, to deal with the sectarian violence which has turned Baghdad into a slaughter pen.
Much of the sectarian violence is being sparked by a fanatical Muslim cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr who has his own militia — the Mahdi army, a force of about 10,000 well armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles rocket propelled grenades, mortars, Strela anti-air missiles, and other light weapons.
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The Mahdi Militia also uses IEDs (improvised explosive devices also known as road-side bombs). They have pledged to come to the aid of Iran, which is closely allied with al-Sadr, if it is attacked by Western forces.
Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is a close political ally of al-Sadr, a powerful member of Iraq's parliament, who is seen as a hero by Iraq's majority Shiite population. Maliki has not only been reluctant to deal with the Mahdi army but has also stymied U.S. efforts to do so.
At the root of the sectarian violence is the determination of a large number of Shiites to exact vengeance on the Sunnis who ruled Iraq with an iron hand under Saddam Hussein, subjecting the majority Shiite population to a brutal dictatorship and abetting Saddam in the murder of hundreds of thousands of their people.
It has long been clear that the sectarian violence undermining the stability of the Iraqi government cannot be stopped as long as men like al-Sadr and private militias such as his Mahdi army are allowed to maraud at will. Until they are suppressed, Iraq will continue to be a tinder box always on the verge of a destructive civil war which will ignite much of that area of the Middle East.
The U.S. has been unable to force the Iraqi government and its U.S. trained army to bring al-Sadr and his army to heel because of the sovereignty of the Iraqi government. The fact is that Maliki cannot survive politically if he moves against al-Sadr and his supporters. As a result, we are at a stalemate and the violence will continue and get worse unless the U.S. steps in and does the job Maliki cannot or will not do.
Under these circumstances, the U.S. has no alternative than to act on its own, or get out and allow the Middle East to explode, al-Qaida to triumph and the war on terrorism to escalate and reach our shores.
I asked the panel for a their recommendations on how the handle the al-Sadr problem and they called upon Gen. Jackson to explain their view.
Here is his solution.
"In December, 1862 after the Battle of Fredericksburg, I came down to the city to see what was left after the Yankee's had finished destroying what remained after the bombardment that preceded their attack. Several of my men asked me what we could do about such vandals. I told them the answer was simple: 'Kill 'em, kill 'em all.'"
That's what we have to do if we want to stay in Iraq and finish the job. When it comes to al-Sadr and his thugs, we have to kill them, kill them all.
The panel's recommendation: The U.S. must recognize the proven fact that the Iraqi government simply cannot cope with the violence tearing the nation apart. Until it is quelled, victory is impossible. If victory is impossible under those circumstances, it will be clear that we have been defeated and will have no choice but to withdraw and leave Iraq to its fate.
Shedding one more drop of American blood in a lost war would be unthinkable, even given the fact that the ultimate outcome of our withdrawal will be even more unthinkable.
We can, however, avoid slinking away in defeat if we resolve to prevail, no matter what. This will require us to inform the Iraqi government that we intend to accomplish what it has been unable to do itself and take the military actions required to restore peace and stability there. We have asked Gen. Sherman to explain what must be done.
"I agree with my former enemy Gen. Jackson. Both al-Sadr and his army must be killed. As long as he and his army live, they will be a dagger pointed at the heart of a peaceful Iraq.
"Moreover, we must strike at the heart of the insurgency just as I struck at the heart of the rebellion. To defeat the insurgency we must do what I did when I wrote that 'To stop the war we must defeat the rebel armies . . . we must prepare the way to reach them in their recesses . . .'
"If this requires us to go into their strongholds where they hide among the population and remove the people from their habitats so they can be cleansed of the insurgency that has hidden among them, so be it. That's what I did, it succeeded, and will succeed again. As my colleague on the panel, Gen. MacArthur said, ‘There is no substitute for victory.' In the case of Iraq it is simply a matter of get tough or get out."
When the question of the increased casualties that will result from an all-out assault on the insurgency Sgt. Maj. Dan Daly recalled what he told his fellow Marines as they went over the top to face murderous fire from German machine guns: "C'mon you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"
A nation that is unwilling to shed its blood for a just cause is a nation unworthy of having its warriors shed their blood. In Iraq our warriors have willingly died for a just cause and will continue to do so if given their nation's support for that cause.
Turning to the matter of America's ability to sustain a long war in the absence of any real progress, Gen. George Washington spoke for the panel, pointing out that his under-armed, undermanned, often underfed, dressed in rags with shoeless bleeding feet wrapped in scraps of cloth, with lost battle after lost battle behind them and with 4,435 killed and 6,188 wounded and another 20,000 Americans dead of starvation, disease, and other non-combat causes, for four long years never gave up until they won.
Gen. Washington recalled the advice of the half-American Winston Churchill "Never, never, never give up . . . Never, never, never give up."
Said Gen. Washington, "We lost battle after battle yet we fought on and never gave up. When America accepts a policy of turning tail and running as it did in Vietnam, it has accepted a policy that will bring it to its knees and leave it naked to the assaults of the forces of tyranny."
Responding to the suggestion now being advanced that the United States seek to reach accommodations with Iran and Syria, the panel asked Gen. George Patton to speak for them. Recalling that he once advised "Make your plans to fit the circumstances," he laid out those circumstances being ignored by those suggesting we seek the cooperation of Iran in solving the problems in Iraq.
"I never fought a battle without first knowing who my enemy was and what tactics he was known to employ. When I fought tank battles in Africa with Gen. Rommel I knew what he would do. I had read his book on tank warfare.
"Those who advocate negotiating with Iran for the purpose of enlisting their aid in solving the problems of Iraq, for the most of which they are directly responsible, simply haven't read the book."
In this case, the book is "Tehran Rising Iran's Challenge to the United States," by Ilan Berman, a professor at the National Defense University in Washington and a vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council. Mr. Berman conclusively demonstrates that it is the Islamic Republic of Iran that is the founding and major force in the worldwide jihad we in the West call the war on Terror.
Mr. Berman recalled for the panel that after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took power in Iran after the ouster of the Shah, the new Iranian constitution in 1979 provided that the country's armed forces "will be responsible not only for safeguarding the borders, but also for accomplishing an ideological mission; that is, the jihad for thee sake of God, as well as for "struggling to open the way for the sovereignty of the word of God throughout the world."
The constitution also called for a commitment to "unsparing support to the freedom fighters of the world" and for "just struggles . . . against the oppressors in every corner of the globe." That's us, the West.
In case the West didn't hear that declaration of war against it, just six months after coming to power Khomeini repeated the declaration, saying "The governments of the world should know that Islam cannot be defeated. Islam will be victorious in all countries of the world, and Islam and the teaching of the Quran will prevail all over the world."
That this was not merely bravado or empty rhetoric is obvious every time a roadside bomb explodes in Iraq, or a suicide bomber blows up a crowded restaurant Tel Aviv, or jet planes crash into New York skyscrapers. The mullahs in Iran have backed up their words with action; Hezbollah and Hamas are just two of their international brigades now invading the West.
Compared to the mullahs in Iran, Osama bin Laden is a Johnny-come-lately in the worldwide jihad. Iran's leadership in the jihad has just been emphasized by their announcement that they are training a replacement for bin Laden, thus openly proclaiming their supremacy in the war to subjugate the world Islamic rule.
To attempt to enlist Iran in solving the problems of the Iraq insurgency is like trying to enlist the devil in solving the problem of sin.
In an effort to learn more about the nature of the guerrilla war now being waged by the insurgents, the Panel asked the renowned Confederate guerilla leader Col. John Singleton Mosby to appear before it. In his testimony he re-emphasized the point made by Gen. Patton; the importance of knowing the enemy.
Col. Mosby said the U.S. must enlist the aid and advice of scholars and experts on Arabic and Islamist culture since it is within that culture that the guerillas operate. He cited the example of one of history's most acclaimed Arabic scholars, Col. T.E. Lawrence, who the British enlisted to form and lead an Arabic guerilla force.
Lawrence, Col Mosby pointed out, fully understood the nature and culture of the Arabs and was able to blend in with them and embrace their culture with which he was completely familiar.
He never sought to impose his own British cultural imperatives upon his Arab allies, but adopted the Arabic culture as his own. "If we are to succeed in training the Iraqi armed forces and police to prevail over the guerillas, we must do so from within their culture, and only those thoroughly versed in and immersed in that culture can do the job that must be done," Col. Mosby advised.
In their final report, the panel made the following recommendations.
1. That the United States, now faced with deciding to prevail in Iraq or withdraw its forces, reach either an immediate and firm determination to prevail, or to make the necessary arrangements to withdraw from the conflict without further bloodshed and pull back within our own borders, there to await attacks on the homeland by a triumphant jihad.
2. That in the event that the U.S. should decide to remain in Iraq, the government take immediate steps to embrace a strategy to go all-out to win that struggle.
3. That the most aggressive and seasoned combat commanders available, men of the caliber of Marine Lt. Gen. James Mattis, be sent to Iraq with instructions to do whatever needs to be done to attain victory without regard to political correctness or the sensibilities of the anti-war contingent both here and abroad. War, as Gen. Sherman said, is hell, and there is no escaping its brutality. The good suffer along with the bad.
4. That the U.S. must accept the fact in a full scale war against the insurgents now hiding among the civilian populations innocent civilians will be killed or displaced, just as was the case in World War II. Those areas such as Anbar Province where the insurgents conceal themselves among the civilian population, often subjugating them to their will, must be temporarily cleared of their populations and kept free of insurgent domination until all the insurgents have been killed.
5. That whatever number of troops required to wage an all-out assault on the insurgency and the sectarian factions be immediately dispatched and, as was the practice in previous was, retained there until the job is done. Moreover, the borders with both Iran and their puppet state Syria must be sealed off to stop the flow of weapons, money, and terrorists coming into Iraq.
5. That the government in Iraq be trained to act solely as a secular authority and that the various religious authorities be restrained from interfering with the political process.
Signed in absentia: Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe, chairman, Gen. George Washington, co-chairman.
Gen. George Patton, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Gen. Chesty Puller, USMC, Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, CSA, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Gen. Robert E. Lee, CSA Sgt. Maj. Dan Daly USMC, Gen.l William T. Sherman CSA.
As for those in the U.S. Congress now demanding an abject surrender to the enemy, Gen. McAuliffe had the final word:
"Nuts!"
Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s. He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska. He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com.
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