July 23, 2008
A consensus seems to be building for a pullout of some, many or all U.S. forces from Iraq. Take your pick. Exactly which one depends on the day and the polling.
Barack Obama, after opposing the war and the surge which has produced improved conditions that even other Democrats have reluctantly acknowledged, now says that even though the surge has worked, he still opposes it. This makes no sense and is simply crass pandering to the far-left which Obama represents and whose positions he admires.
This war won’t end even if we achieve our objectives in Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s because – as I have said many times – this isn’t a war about nation states or borders or land. It is a religious-cultural-ideological war for control of the entire earth. It is led by fanatical Islam which sees a marriage between God and state with themselves as the imposers of their religion and practices on everyone else. They also believe in hating and killing all who won’t bow the knee to their Allah.
This is what we face. If we think we can pullout from that, we are pitifully self-deluded.
Cal Thomas is a nationally syndicated columnist based in Washington, D.C.