Seeking Psychological Victory In The War On Terror [Islamo-fascism]

by Tony Blankley - January 2nd, 2008 - Real Clear Politics

In Iraq, as military and security conditions continue to improve, American war politics enters one of its stranger moments in our history. Certainly it is historically odd for war reporting to diminish almost to the point of public invisibility -- just as our troops are starting to gain the upper hand. But we are fighting this war with the journalists we have, not the ones we want.

However, although the media maintained a virtual radio silence once things started going our way, the public has come to recognize the military success. Typical of recent polling is the Pew Research Center poll from Nov. 27, which shows that about half the country thinks the military effort is going very or fairly well (up from 30 percent). The public is also substantially more optimistic than it was in recent years that we are reducing civilian casualties, preventing civil war, defeating insurgents, preventing terrorist bases and rebuilding infrastructure.

Despite such optimism, by 54 percent to 41 percent (virtually unchanged from February's 53 percent to 42 percent), the public wants our troops to come home rather than stay.

There are reasons for this. George W. Bush is the most incompetent communicator we have had as President for most of our history. Off hand I cannot think of anyone in his class.

He is also a poor strategic planner, as evidenced by his attempts to "fix" social security during a time of war. This accomplished nothing but convincing the American people that the war was not important and reducing support for the war.

His successes have all been about his mastery of tactical planning, working as the MBA President to get smart people to share their ideas and allowing George to judge which ones are the best ideas.

Unfortunately that is not what we need a President to do.

The war against the Islamo-fascists is the most important issue we currently face. We cannot leave the Middle East until that war is won, or we are certain to see nuclear bombs going off in our cities. Avoiding nuclear war will be almost impossible. In addition, it is likely that the internal rage over nuclear bombs going off in our cities will risk civil war here at home. It may happen anyway if we cannot muster the will to stop Islamo-fascism in Iran and Pakistan.

The dichotomy of Americans thinking that we are winning, but being willing to accept defeat against this enemy (that desires our destruction), is a problem that can be blamed on no one else but George W. Bush.