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Opportunities in Post-U.S. Iraq Philip V. Brennan OK, if the Democrats are correct, the overwhelming majority of Americans want us out of Iraq, and want us out now, why not just give in and bug out? After all, a war cannot succeed without the support of a majority of a nation's citizens and that apparently being the case with the struggle in Iraq, why not just admit that we've lost another war and get out, just as we did in Vietnam? We will, of course have to do what we did in the case of Vietnam — shut our eyes to the consequences of our retreat. Of course, as terrible and bloody as those consequences were at the time — handing the South Vietnamese over to the tender mercies of the communist North Vietnamese who calmly butchered or imprisoned a million or so of them — our withdrawal had little if any effect on our cozy lifestyle. That of course will not be the case if we stage an immediate withdrawal of our troops as the Democrats insist we must in response to the will of the people, and even if we try to turn a blind eye to the bloodbath that follows we will not get off Scot free this time around. Chaos will follow in the wake of our withdrawal. Iran, a soon-to-be nuclear power will absorb Iraq, violence will lead to the overthrow of the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait. The rest of the Middle East will fall into the grips of Islamist fanatics, the Taliban will once again rule Afghanistan, new terrorist training camps will spring up all over the place, and most of our precious supply of oil will dry up. Story Continues Below
The West will have been driven out of the area; Iran's determination to destroy Israel will be realized; the oil-driven economies of the West will come crashing down; and Americans will be driven back to the mid-19th century, all the while trying to fend off terrorist attacks in our neighborhoods of the kind now being seen on the streets of Baghdad. We'll have to adjust to our changed circumstances as we have always done when circumstances forced us to do so. In so doing, all sorts of new opportunities will become available to those quick witted enough to grasp them. Since enough gasoline will no longer be available to fuel our cars, we'll need substitute methods of transportation to get us where we need to go. What a great time to be in the bicycle business. Some quick-witted entrepreneur will amass a great fortune by becoming the Henry Ford of the bicycle business, mass producing affordable bikes for the masses. With cars no longer useable, some new Hertz or Avis type will jump at the chance of starting a rent-a-horse business, even offering ponies as the new compacts. Detroit will start building carriages, Germany will brag that their new Mercedes fringed top surreys are the products of vaunted Teutonic engineering and the Japanese will mass produce cheap but reliable buggies. It goes without saying that in the face of all the new neighborhood terrorism, the gun business will flourish, gun control laws will be abolished as the citizenry arms itself for self-defense, and inventors will vie with each other to produce cheap anti-IED devices. The Wild West will move East, and stranger, you'd better smile when you say something unpleasant. Coal will once again become king — diesel locomotives will be converted into coal-burning steam engines, and home oil burners and all forms of electric heaters will give way to the old fashioned coal-fired furnace. The fan making business will take the place of air conditioning manufacturing. Frantic drilling for oil will take place in Alaska, in the Gulf and everywhere offshore, and the most dangerous thing to be will be to be an environmentalist. And as Americans shiver through cold winters, people will be asking where the heck is global warming when we need it. In every way, America will return to the good old days us elderly folks tend to romanticize about and will be happy to be far enough along to not have to put up for long with the bad side of the good old times we tend to forget. So when the bottom falls out of everything after we cut and run from the Middle East, pick yourself up, start a bike rental business or get yourself a herd of horses to rent out, and learn how to become one of the the robber barons of the new era. Semper Fi. Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor & 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. Editor's note: Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
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