Baffled

I have to admit I’m finding myself becoming increasingly baffled (as was reflected in my earlier request for a point of information). The voices I’m hearing around me are becoming increasingly, well, nuts.

Some people apparently believe that the very small number of thugs and terrorists known as “the Iraqi insurgency” are sufficiently numerous and capable that they’re beyond the capability of Iraq’s police and national guard and our own military to control. However, Al-Qaeda and similar radical Islamist terrorists—who would seem to be significantly more numerous and capable—are well within the capability of law enforcement to control whatever small risk they pose.

Some people apparently believe that the very small proportion of Iraqis in “the Iraqi insurgency” means that the Iraqi people haven’t turned against us there. However, the very small proportion of Muslims known as “violent radical Islamists” means that all Muslims are arrayed against the West.

Some people apparently believe that it’s wrong for a Muslim-owned company to manage port terminal operations in the United States but don’t seem to have a problem with Muslim-owned companies managing airport terminal operations or owning U. S. banks, power companies, or software development companies. People with this view also seem to believe that the 50% of port terminal operations managed by foreign-owned companies on the East coast of the United States poses a threat but the 70% of port terminal operations managed by foreign-owned companies on the West coast doesn’t.

I, on the other hand, believe that, although I was opposed to the invasion of Iraq, things are going as well might be reasonably expected there given the history and composition of Iraq, the decrepitude of its infrastructure, its open borders, and the active connivance of its neighbors. A lot more Americans and Iraqis will be killed in putting down the insurgency but, if we have the patience to stick it out (possibly for a generation), a stable at least minimally democratic state will emerge there. The implications of our leaving the Iraqis to their own fates before that happens are too awful to contemplate both for the sake of the Iraqis and for our own.

I also believe that Al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist terrorists present a genuine threat to us that’s beyond the capability of law enforcement (at least the kind of law enforcement that we have or want) to handle. We’ll need all the help we can get to deal with it especially from Muslims overseas and the best way to get that is by making common cause with them (they have much more to fear from these thugs than we do) and that we’ll have to engage with them in order to do that. We can’t do that either by isolating them or allowing them to isolate themselves.

I also believe that we need to be more concerned about the security of our ports, airports, banks, and so on and less about the ethnicity or religion of the owners of the companies that manage them. British companies are as capable of hiring radical Islamist moles as Emirati companies are. We can’t depend on self-aggrandizing politicians who’ve been suddenly aroused from their years-long torpor by a need for a hit of media attention for our opinions or leadership on this. Congress doesn’t have the experience, inclination, training, or temperament to deal with the real security problems we have.

I’m sure that lots of people find my beliefs nuts as well.

But as I look around I find myself more and more in the position of the doctor, the narrator in Pierre Boule’s novel The Bridge on the River Kwai (Major Clipton in the movie): “Madness, it’s all madness”.