“We’ll Succeed Unless We Quit”

President Bush nails it on Iraq:

HANOI, Vietnam (CNN) — Emphasizing that the United States is in Iraq for the long haul, U.S. President George Bush on Friday drew an often-avoided parallel to Vietnam, saying “we’ll succeed unless we quit.”
Detractors have often tried to compare the war in Iraq to America’s ill-fated military operation in Vietnam, but Bush used it as an opportunity to stress patience.
“One lesson is that we tend to want there to be instant success in the world and the task in Iraq is going to take a while,” the president told reporters after a meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. “We’ll succeed unless we quit.”

Our stalwart allies, the Aussies, are right behind us:

Howard echoed Bush, saying “the idea of the coalition leaving in circumstances where the Iraqi people would not seem to be able to look after themselves and to enjoy the democracy they want would be a catastrophic defeat for our cause.”

Bush is absolutely correct in his assessment of Iraq. If we leave, we lose. Iraq will fall into chaos, the Iraqis themselves will feel betrayed by the west and will resent us, the terrorists will proclaim a victory over the “Great Satan” for having driven us from Iraq and America’s status as the world’s only true superpower will be called into question.
Those are terrible, dangerous consequences.
But what happens if we stay in Iraq? We continue to spend about $100 billion/year and lose about 1,000 soldiers/year. A terrible cost, no doubt, but not an unsustainable one. Especially in light of the consequences of our leaving.
What is maddening for this ardent supporter of the war is that it would be simple to deliver a crushing propaganda blow to the terror insurgency in Iraq. All our politicians here at home would have to do is get together and issue a joint statement declaring that we will “stay in Iraq until the mission is completed” and that while “we may differ on how to complete that mission, and whether or not the war in Iraq was a good idea in the first place, we will not leave Iraq until the commitment we made to the Iraqi people upon invading their country is satisfied.”
Such a united message coming out of America would crush the terrorists, because one of the few things keeping them going right now is the idea that their daily barrage of small attacks – endlessly hyped by the media – is undermining political and public support here at home which may result in our withdrawal (their victory).
But are we capable of sending such a united message? No. Mostly because one political party here in America (see: Democrats) would rather hand the terrorists in Iraq a victory just to spite Republicans and President Bush then to see our troops succeed in their mission.