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Five reasons America must win in Iraq

April 9, 2008 | By Nathaniel Ward

     
 

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James Carafano offers five reasons why the U.S. must win in Iraq.

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Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of allied forces in Iraq, testified Tuesday before Congress about the ongoing military operations and the success of the surge strategy in securing the country.

Watch the video of Jim Phillips on the Iraq hearings

» Watch the video: Heritage Middle East scholar Jim Phillips explains the questions the hearings were to address

“Since Ambassador Crocker and I appeared before you seven months ago, there has been significant but uneven security progress in Iraq,” Petraeus said.

He proposed that “we continue the drawdown of the surge combat force” and then evaluate the security situation starting in July. “This process will be continuous, with recommendations for further reductions made as conditions permit. This approach does not allow establishment of a set withdrawal timetable; however, it does provide the flexibility those of us on the ground need to preserve the still fragile security gains our troopers have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve.”

Despite the general’s remarks, liberals continue to push for a rapid withdrawal from Iraq—whether we have secured victory or not.

In a new video, Heritage Foundation national security expert offers five reasons the United States needs to win in Iraq: 1) to strengthen Iraq’s army; 2) to contain Iran; 3) to defeat al Qaeda; 4) to maintain America’s alliances; and 5) to avert a humanitarian crisis.

Take our poll: Should the United States withdraw from Iraq as liberals propose, even if victory has not been secured?

The real lessons of Basra

Members of Congress questioned Petraeus on several issues, including the recent clashes in Basra. Though portrayed as a defeat for the Iraqi government, Heritage Middle East scholar Jim Phillips argues that “the battle for Basra demonstrated that the Iraqi government is capable of taking the initiative and inflicting severe losses on militias supported by Iran.”

Phillips also points to another lesson from Basra: don’t engage in hasty withdrawal. “The fact that the chaos in Basra was in part created by the premature withdrawal of British troops, which allowed militias and gangs to proliferate, underscores the importance of maintaining adequate U.S. military forces in Iraq until Iraqi security forces are strong enough to safeguard Iraq’s security on their own.”

For all the latest on Iraq, visit Heritage’s Progress in Iraq page.

How to make health care even more expensive

Out on the campaign trail, liberals continue to push for massive government intervention in health care. But while they’re looking to address a very real problem—millions of Americans cannot afford health coverage—their proposals would actually make health care more expensive.

Heritage health care expert Greg D’Angelo took a look at some of these left-wing proposals and found that “big government, bureaucratic reforms would only push health-care costs higher.” That’s because “experience shows that replacing competition with federal regulation and restricting consumers’ choices is a prescription for higher — not lower — costs.”

The plan outlined by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), for example, “merely adds big government, bureaucratic features to the status quo. That’s no way to guarantee affordability.”

Other lawmakers, though, seem to embrace what D’Angelo calls “real change — health insurance markets driven by personal choice and real competition.”

Speaking last week at The Heritage Foundation, Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) , Jim DeMint (R-SC) and David Vitter (R-La.) outlined a program to unleash free enterprise on health care.

» Watch video of Sens. Burr, DeMint and Vitter speaking at Heritage

Other Heritage work of note

  • Entrepreneurship. Congress is thinking seriously about “doing something” to fix the struggling housing market. Unfortunately, they’re acting without regard for how the mortgage crisis began. Heritage’s Ron Utt provides lawmakers with a useful guide to how this whole mess got started.
  • First Principles. Liberals have claimed that a decline in citizens registering to vote at welfare offices is the result of states ignoring federal rules making voter registration easier. But this is hokum, as Heritage’s David Muhlhausen testified on Capitol Hill last week. Instead, a careful analysis reveals that the decline is instead the result of declining welfare rolls, which in turn results from the 1996 welfare reforms.
  • Protect America. The Navy recently requested permission to reduce the aircraft carrier fleet from 11 to 10. This is a bad idea, argue Heritage national security experts Mackenzie Eaglen and James Dolbow. They maintain that Congress should reject the Navy’s request and instead commit to a long-term program to rebuild the fleet. “The carrier shortfall,” they write, “is another perilous reminder that the defense budget topline is too low for the U.S. military to simultaneously field trained and ready forces, support ongoing operations, and modernize.”

In other news

  • The American people continue to show common sense on the economy: 48 percent of voters say the best thing the government can do for the economy is to get out of the way by reducing taxes and regulations.
  • An Absolut Vodka advertisement shows Mexico reclaiming its “lost” North American territory, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California and much of the mountain West. The Los Angeles Times reports that the ad features “a colorful map depicting what the Americas might look like in an ‘Absolut’ — i.e., perfect — world.”
  • “Corn prices jumped to a record $6 a bushel Thursday,” the AP reports, “driven up by an expected supply shortfall that will only add to Americans’ growing grocery bill and further squeeze struggling ethanol producers.” Perhaps the government should stop propping up ethanol production, which increases demand for corn and thereby reduces the supply available for food.
  • Government estimates suggest the price of gasoline could reach $4 per gallon this summer. If lawmakers want to keep prices down, they should consider ending the prohibition on exploring new domestic energy sources in Alaska and elsewhere.

Coming up at Heritage

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Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Chris Albright contributed to this report.