Wednesday, August 22, 2007

A Response to ever more from Andrew Sullivan   [Victor Davis Hanson]

The last time I had a run-in with the frenetic Andrew Sullivan was in front of an audience at Columbia University. There while loudly renouncing his former support for invading Iraq, he accused me of supporting government-sponsored torture — only later to concede that in fact, as I told him at the time, I had written a column specifically objecting to its use as others acknowledged. But that apparently has become Sullivan’s  modus operandi — in frenzied fashion to toss out slurs and then to grow silent when they are refuted.

Now he is angry that I, like dozens of others, referred to The New Republic’s Pvt. Scott Beauchamp as a fabulist that he is, and so tried to make the case that an opinion writer whose views he disagrees with is comparable to a war chronicler making up facts on ground around him as he goes along.

That’s preposterous, but so are the examples Sullivan cites of my own supposed fables, when three years ago I emphasized that a need for a change of tactics, not sheer numbers, was the key to restoring security in Iraq.

First, I am not sure that Sullivan can read the English language. He lodges the following accusation:

“The first is an argument that counter-insurgency works best when American troops stay in their tanks and kill people. It’s a June 2004 defense of a strategy not exactly identical with the Petraeus strategy Hanson is now touting. Money quote:

    “For their part, American troops have discovered that they are safer on the assault when they can fire first and kill killers, rather than simply patrol and react, hoping their newly armored Humvees and fortified flak vests will deflect projectiles.”

Sullivan’s quote of what I wrote proves the exact opposite of his allegation that I argued that we should  “stay in tanks and kill people”. That would be entirely defensive and rely on armor like Humvees. Instead, as any reader can see, I argued for going on the assault, NOT simply patrolling and reacting in hopes that “newly armored Humvees and vests will deflect projectiles.” I don’t know where Sullivan got “stay in their tanks” other than once again he made it up himself.

Of course, I stand by all that and believe that much of the change in Iraq is due precisely to an alteration in tactics rather than numerical increases alone, which have allowed us to come out of defensive postures and “attack” those who are killing Iraqi civilians.

But when he gets to a discussion of numbers Sullivan only compounds his ignorance. I wrote in support of changing tactics and using the then current 140,000 troops differently, rather than sending in 200,000 troops to emulate existing tactics, a numerical increase that was called for by some. Sullivan objects that I wrote:

“There are other advantages to a force of some 138,000 rapidly responding soldiers, rather than 200,000 or so garrison troops. The more American troops, the less likely it is Iraqis will feel any obligation to step up to the responsibilities of their own defense. The more troops, the more psychological reliance on numbers than on performance of individual units. And, the more troops, the higher the profile of culturally bothersome Americans who disturb by their mere omnipresence, rather than win respect for their proven skill in arms.”

I stand by that. Apparently, Sullivan does not realize that the current 160,000-troop surge is far closer to 138,000 than it is to 200,000-and is designed precisely to provide a window of security by more aggressive operations apart from our compounds, and intended to allow us to disengage and turn over the war gradually to the Iraqis.
As for Sullivan’s final complaint. Yes, I did write the following:

“At the same time, the Arab world is beginning to see elections take hold in the Islamic world—in Afghanistan, the West Bank, and now Iraq. And that fact will eventually be fatal for Al Qaeda and Baathists alike. We cannot appreciate these positive symptoms in our despair over the post-invasion period.”
I think the general decline in support for bin Laden and suicide bombing in the Middle East, and changes from Lebanon to Libya support that evolution, and yes, that we can’t appreciate that in our present despair.

I used to think Sullivan was perhaps unstable, but not necessarily dense. But I fear that he is increasingly both-or more still.

I do plead guilty in consistently and without exception supporting the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003, supporting the effort to foster constitutional government in Iraq from 2003-2007, believing that despite our acknowledged errors that we can adjust, just as we have in past wars, and will still prevail-and that a democratic Iraq will be a humane achievement for its people, a marked improvement for the region, and a positive development for the security of the United States. 

08/22 09:05 PMShare