We Need to Be in Iraq

So says this column from Townhall, and I agree. Here's just one very crucial reason:

The U.S. military is exquisitely equipped to fight last century's wars. We shed much blood teaching ourselves to overcome German tanks and Japanese kamikazes; we spent much treasure deterring Soviet nuclear missiles. Inconveniently, however, our enemies now fight with Improvised Explosive Devices, suicide bombers, butchers knives, lies and videotape. And they will use Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) should they get their hands on them....

If America's military fails to master the art and science of post-modern warfare in Iraq, there can be only two choices: Learn on the next battlefield (Jordan? Afghanistan? Lebanon?), or don't bother to learn at all; instead, get used to the taste of retreat and defeat.

Defeat is no alternative. Here's why:

America cannot afford to again embolden its enemies as it did in Beirut in 1983 and Somalia in 1993 and in other places at other times. American cannot afford to leave Iraq with Zarqawi in any condition to claim credit for the departure.

In my opinion, America's new "Greatest Generation" in Iraq is shedding off the shame and humiliation of past defeats and creating a new, less darker future for our children, and perhaps for the world.