Beyond Ideology

By Justin Raimondo

"The theme of this forum, "Beyond Ideology," is very appropriate to our present situation, because it is absolutely necessary that we put aside ideology – for just a moment – and confront the emergency that we all face.

"Emergency?" you ask. "What emergency?"

The war in Iraq is now reaching the point where the administration faces a choice: Bush must either escalate or get out. I'd be willing to bet the farm that he'll choose – has already chosen – the former.

There is a whole school of thought, that extends from neoconservative Republicans to supposedly antiwar Democrats, which blames the failure of the occupation to contain the insurgency on the need for more troops. We didn't start out with enough troops, say these critics, and the Bush administration has "mismanaged" the war. The so-called "national security Democrats" have their own plan to "win" the war – with only a minority calling for withdrawing our troops. And even these folks maintain that we will have to maintain a watchful presence elsewhere in the Middle East, in the Gulf emirates perhaps, or bases in East Africa.

We didn't just invade Iraq – we invaded the Middle East, and the war that has engulfed Saddam Hussein's former dominion cannot be contained within its borders. War doesn't respect national boundaries, and tends inevitably to spill over such artificial barriers and spread like wildfire. And that wildfire will eventually consume the entire region – unless we act to stop the next war before it starts.

Get ready for phase two of the Middle Eastern wars.

These arrows in the War Party's quiver are all quite valuable in ensuring that the foreign policy "consensus" remains static in spite of radical shifts in public opinion on the subject. Yet there is one factor that gives them an incalculable advantage, and that is the weakness of their opposition. The Peace Party – for lack of a better designation – is divided, without comparable resources, and lacks the dedicated constituency of its adversary."