Public opinion and strategy

R. Emmett Tyrrell:

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The Democrats' abandonment of this war makes it apparent that an entirely new strategy is necessary if our military is to be used to achieve our diplomatic goals. The military has demonstrated that it is sufficiently powerful to smash any aggressor anywhere on Earth, but American public opinion is not sufficiently resolute to sustain a commitment of American troops in hostile environs. Thus we must adopt a strategy that recognizes the impatience of public opinion, as well as public opinion's enthusiasm during the initial stages of combat.

My suggestion is that the Pentagon, the State Department and the White House adopt what might be called the Strategy of the Bar Room Brawler (SBRB). According to SBRB, if a foreign government is not amenable to our diplomatic requests, we simply bust the joint up. Photographs of what we accomplished in Serbia merely with airpower and in Iraq with airpower and armor ought to persuade even a stubborn fellow like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that if he continues to displease us his office will be a wreck. And if he plans to drive home or even take public transportation, forget about it. Tehran's infrastructure will be a mess overnight. Within a few months our lightning-quick military could turn much of Iran into a ruin, and according to the protocols of SBRB, our troops would be home in no time.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would still be in her cheering stage as our troops headed home. And with our troops safely home from Iran we would not even have to clean the place up. Leave that thankless task to the French and the Germans. With the money we save we could get on with busting up Syria.

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This may be the strategy that we have to use on Iran, but the downside is that the wrong people may pick up the pieces and then we would have to do it again. After the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan, and the warring factions fought each other to ruin, it was the Taliban that took charge. There needs to be some strategic way to prevent that from happening again if we leave after a brawl. We certainly cannot count on the French or the Germans to keep it from happening.