No End But Victory

A great site, with a great cause. Here's the manifesto:

The calls for a cut-and-run from Iraq are growing stronger. On this very day, the Democrats and Republicans in the United States Senate have duelling amendments before that body which each, in their own way, fuel the political impulse to abandon Iraq to the murderous elements that would destroy it.

Within living memory, we have seen what happens when America abandons its national commitments, and deserts the brave people who stood tall and believed its promises. The faint-hearted and the wavering painted our commitment to the people of Indochina as a cause in itself of the bloodshed and grief there — and then stood mute when they achieved their objective, forced America’s retreat, and years of genocide followed in its wake.

A generation later, they’re trying to do the same in Iraq. For the sake of an Iraqi people only now grasping the responsibilities, perils, and blessings of liberty, we cannot let them force America to shrink from the awesome responsibility it has shouldered. For the sake of American honor — and those who have died in this cause — we cannot repeat the mistakes of 1991, when the cost of our reluctance was counted in Kurdish and Shi’a dead.

This is not a partisan issue. This is not a left- or right-wing issue. This is an American and Iraqi issue, and all men of good faith must now come together to remind our leadership that whatever our politics, and whatever we thought of the decision to go to war, there can be only one end:

Victory.

The anti-war, cut-and-run crowd, which fears not defeat, nor dishonor, nor an Iraq under the terrorist heel, is well-organized. Its online haunts are well-known enough: Daily Kos, Atrios, and the rest have a massive readership, and they present the appearance of representing a substantial segement of public opinion in the United States.

But we know that this is not so. We know that Americans don’t want to retreat: they want to win. And their support for the war varies in direct proportion to their perception that the American political leadership is willing to achieve that. History shows this clearly: the United States Congress turned against the war in Vietnam long before the American people did; support for the 1983 Lebanon intervention collapsed only after the Reagan Administration decided to withdraw; and support for the Somalia intervention was strong until the moment the Clinton Administration elected to retreat.

The President has done an admirable job in holding the line. But both American political parties show signs of capitulation. It’s time for us to raise our voices and remind them that all of us, Americans and Iraqis, demand one thing of this war:

NO END BUT VICTORY.

I strongly, and whole-heartedly support this ideal, and this site.