Cliff May, in a must-read column, wades into the debate among conservatives on the Afghanistan war. He explains that fighting a war against Islamic fundamentalists means that we must fight them where we find them:
I would stress this: Afghanistan is not a war. It is one battle in what — I’m not the first to deduce — is going to be a long war, a global conflict to defend America and the West against an insidiously dangerous enemy that has emerged from within the Islamic world.
It is a war over ideas as much as it is a war over land. In fact, as real estate, Afghanistan is of minimal value. But what happens there will help determine how we — and our enemies and the millions of people around the world who have not taken sides — understand what this struggle is about and who is likely to prevail.
[. . .]
It was consequential that American forces and our Iraqi allies defeated al-Qaeda in Iraq (and if democracy promotion is not your top priority, don’t fret that the government there is flawed). It will be useful for us to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan (and don’t expect to leave behind a Costa Rica of the Hindu Kush; just leave behind local forces trained to defend themselves). It is imperative, too, that we exert maximum pressure on the Islamist regime in Tehran that has been waging war against us for 30 years, and is today supporting terrorists from Afghanistan to Iraq to Gaza to Argentina.
Moreover, it’s always a good idea to show religious fanatics they have it all wrong:
What’s more, in a war against religious fanatics — the Taliban is not, as NBC’s David Gregory recently said, a “nationalist movement” — no editorial, no speech, no talking point demonstrates the absence of divine endorsement quite so convincingly as defeat on the battlefield.
[. . .]
Our enemies believe history and God are on their side. They are eager to fight for victory — which they define as bringing death, destruction, and humiliation to you and your children. They say this plainly in their speeches and sermons. They are not seriously attempting to delude anyone. Rather, they are counting on us to delude ourselves. Eight years after 9/11, with many on the left and the right arguing for retreat, and a president who doesn’t appear to know his own mind, can anyone say with confidence that they are wrong?
May is rightly concerned, as are the opponents of the war in Afghanistan, that the president doesn’t quite have his heart in this. Where are the impassioned speeches (even one) before Congress and the American people? (As Bill Kristol points out, the president’s disdain for having to spend real money to win a critical victory is not heartening.) But that doesn’t suggest that conservatives should encourage his worst tendencies or supply intellectual aid and comfort to those attempting to justify retreat.
Still, May is right to be worried. If the president doesn’t understand all this and is not willing to risk some political capital then America certainly can’t prevail. We can do without many things, but a commander in chief committed to victory isn’t one of them.
