What the Anti-War Movement is Really Fighting Against

Eli Lake writing for the NYSun regarding the anti-war extremist movement:

They are asking Americans to believe not that the war was a blunder, so much that the war was a sin; that the decapitators and car bombers of innocents are a resistance; that the army seeking to prevent ethnic cleansing today is in fact responsible for it.

What exactly is it that the anti-war movement fights for today? Before the war began, I can understand the protests. Maybe even during the "civil war", when things went south after the bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in February of 2006. But now? What are they still protesting for?

For morality's sake? For compassion and the end to suffering? Then they should support America's efforts in Iraq. Yet they do not take into consideration the consequences of ending "the war" prematurely, on their terms of immediate withdrawal (as if such an exit were logistically, let alone morally, possible):

Most Americans do want to end a war they believe America is losing, but they don't suffer from the delusion that Iraqis would be better off if the Shiite and Sunni death cults took power after our soldiers left.

It is a prospect the activists for now would rather not broach. Kevin Martin of Peace Action in Mother Jones said it wasn't even for the "peace community" to come up with a contingency plan to prevent competitive genocide after a withdrawal. "In my organization and the umpteen antiwar coalitions that I am in, this is in no way a priority that we think about or talk about," he said.

Later on he added, "We are not responsible for dreaming up a perfect world. We are responsible for trying to end the damn war and putting the political pressure on our government, which is extremely difficult when you have a feeble Congress and a dictator president."

The problem with the anti-war movement is that it deals in yesterday's arguments as the basis for solving today's problems; the peace fascists do not take into account where events of the past 4 years have now brought us. Their reasoning extends not much farther nor deeper than:

"No w(s)md"...."Bush lied"....."no blood for oil"....."bombs not books"....."Support the troops: Bring them home"...."peace is patriotic"....

All that the anti-war movement has left are cookie-cutter slogans, bumpersticker rhetoric, and a romanticized, narcissistic notion of themselves and their place in history. They are riding on fumes:

• Iraq sees dramatically low death toll
• Anbar Rising
• The Anbar awakening spreads
• Kharmah Awakens
• Tribal leaders in Diyala announce alliance against al-Qaeda
• Two Shiite Leaders in Iraq Reach a Peace Agreement
• In Baghdad, Iraqis turning against Sadr’s Iranian backed militia
• Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled
• Iraqis ready to join police in Baghdad hotspots

There's also:
The Shia Awakening
Commerce in Baghad Thrives
Michael Yon on Basra:

Basra is not in chaos. In fact, crime and violence are way down and there has not been a British combat death in over a month. The report below is false.

"The darkness [in Iraq] has become pitch black". So says Osama bin Laden earlier this week in a message to the mujahidin in Iraq. The real question for them should be: "Who wants to be the last mujahidin to die for a mistake?"

According to Bill Roggio,

In Anbar province, al Qaeda in Iraq has failed to kill a single US serviceman by IED since September 10.

Anbar Province has become so secure, U.S. Marines are bored:

In Fallujah, enlisted marines have complained to an officer of my acquaintance: "There's nobody to shoot here, sir. If it's just going to be building schools and hospitals, that's what the Army is for, isn't it?"

Cemetery workers in Iraq are also finding that their jobs are at risk as violence declines (reported in typical MSM "glass half-empty" fashion):

A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds.

Troop reductions have already been planned out; and none of the 3 Democratic frontrunners are advocating for "immediate withdrawal". In fact, the Democrats have not been serious on the war and in ending it, for quite some time. So carrying on the anti-war antics is pointless and meaningless at this stage. It serves only as a distraction. I doubt even bin Laden and Zawahiri draw aid and comfort from the movement these days.

Since those who yearn for a President Bush defeat more than they ache for an American victory cannot claim military defeat in Iraq, the war critics grasp at straws in arguing that there is no political progress happening. That it is a pipe dream for Sunni and Shia to achieve reconciliation.

Scott Malensek makes the following points in casual comment:

1) the Iraqi Parliament has passed more laws than the Democrats' Congress and thus has made more political progress than the American govt, that's noteworthy, and it shows huge hypocrisy on the part of Congressional Democrats to demand results when they themselves can't manage to cut a $500000 virtual herbarium from a bill (see also pork spending worse than Republican Congress)

2) The political reconciliation in Iraq has in fact been taking place since January, but the reason that it doesn't get press isn't because it's unimportant. It's because the Democrats' Congress put together a list of benchmarks that were near impossible for the Iraqis to accomplish,

The anti-war movement has lost the war. So why persist in their delusion? Given how the good news is so undeniably palpable, what exactly is it that groups like Code Pink are protesting against?

Since pictures speak a thousand words, I'll let the following photos from the Multi-National Force- Iraq website speak to the blindness of the anti-war movement.

Message to Code Pink and company: This is what you are fighting against:

The Best Medicine

A U.S. Army Soldier from Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, from Ft. Lewis, Wash., shares a laughs with an Iraqi army soldier at a U.S. and Iraqi Army security checkpoint in Tarmiyah, Iraq, Sept. 25, 2007. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication 2nd Class Summer M. Anderson.

Pride
U.S. Army Sgt. Quenton Sallows hands out Iraqi Flags to Iraqi children beginning their first day of school in Lutafiyah, Iraq, Oct. 1, 2007. Sallows is assigned to Civil Affairs, 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry). U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Quinton Russ.

Nice to Meet You

U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Julia Venegas, from 2nd Marine Logistics Group, shakes hands with a little girl in the village of Kabani, Iraq, while on a security patrol Sept. 28, 2007. U.S. Marine Corps photo taken by Lance Cpl. Robert S. Morgan.

One Size Fits Most

A U.S. Army Soldier of 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division plays with a young Iraqi boy in Mufriq, Iraq, Oct. 8, 2007. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Shawn Weismiller.

School Days

Iraqi girls walk to a primary school in the Andaloos district of Fallujah, Iraq, Oct. 17, 2007, to receive school supplies from U.S. Marines and Iraqi police. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Robert B. Brown Jr.

Junior Heroes

The students at an elementary school in Jerf Al-Mila hold up their 'Junior Hero' stickers after taking an oath to become honorary Junior Heroes during a visit to the school by Iraqi Army Soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division (mechanized), Oct. 17. The Junior Hero program was designed by the Iraqi security forces to teach children about the roles of the Iraqi Army and Iraqi police who work in their communities and ways in which they can volunteer to keep their villages free of crime. Photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Public Affairs

A Sucker for Children

U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Patrick K. Mason, a squad leader for 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, hands a lollipop to an Iraqi boy during a security patrol in Dulab, Iraq, Sept. 25, 2007. The Marines are working with Iraqi police in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Shane S. Keller.

To oppose our presence and efforts in Iraq, is to be standing in the way of history's momentum; and on the wrong side of it.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces