A Gift From the Heart
After a bleak Father’s Day, Andrew J. Bacevich is giving us all a present.
As a military historian, decorated veteran and parent of a son who died there, Bacevich is in a unique position to advise the next President about Iraq. In today’s Los Angeles Times, he does just that:
“The challenge…is to devise an alternative to Bush’s failed strategy. To pass muster, any such strategy will have to recognize the limits of American power, military and otherwise. It must acknowledge that because the United States cannot change Islam, we have no alternative but to coexist with it.
â€Yet coexistence should not imply appeasement or passivity. Any plausible strategy will prescribe concrete and sustainable policies designed to contain the virulent strain of radicalism currently flourishing in parts of the Islamic world. The alternative to transformation is not surrender but quarantine.
“Over time, of course, Islam will become something other than what it is today. But…that evolution will be determined primarily by forces within. Our interest lies in nudging that evolution along a path that alleviates rather than perpetuates conflict between Islam and the West. In that regard, the requirement is not for a bigger Army but for fresh ideas, informed by modesty and a sense of realism.â€
Bacevich won’t be camping out with protest signs, as Cindy Sheehan did, but his efforts as a grieving parent are just as passionate and deserving of respect and gratitude.
Cross posted from my blog
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6 Responses to “A Gift From the Heart”
Well, let’s credit Prof Bacevich for taking the usual Monday morning quarterbacking at least as far as Tuesday morning…….”We need to do something different in the future.”
Also nice to see him suggest the Dems are nothing more than neocon-globalists in-waiting.
CasualObserver
Prof Bacevich was warning against this folly in 2002. How you consider that “monday morning quarterbacking” is beyond me.
Was Shinseki also channeling 20/20 hindsight in his warnings about troop level requirements?
Jules Crittenden has posted an especially loathsome (even for him) response to Bacevich’s op-ed.
Shaun, I agree regarding the Crittenden post. Frankly I’m suprised MVG hasn’t linked to it approvingly from here yet.
As opposed to the Republican plan of no quarterback at all.
I just love our some on the Right — while keeping their “plans” just as vague — cry foul that there is no “plans” or “details” from the Left. Then when any is mentioned they deride it as “Monday morning quarterbacking”.
Bacevich lost his son, the Bush twins and nephew make the gossip pages. The opinions of Webb,Duncan,McClown and the Tillman’s have more weight than the Critter and Max Boot.