Accept Defeat or Stay the Course?

The first article I chose to analyze was written by Jeff Jacoby of The Boston Globe. This article was written in 2006 shortly after the assassination of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He was believed to be a major terrorist leader. At the time, Americans were overjoyed by the event and felt that this was a sign of success of the war in Iraq. As a Middle Eastern journalist describes in the article, many positive signs are happening that are not being published by the media. Some of the positive signs that he has observed is the decrease in number of refugees, a decrease in the number of pilgrims to Shi'ite shrines, and the increase in small business activity such as agriculture.
A possible bias to this article that the information comes from a Middle Eastern journalist as opposed to an American. I feel that this article contains reliable information since it comes from a first hand source.
The second article was published in a 2006 edition of Time magazine. The article is titled “Would Defeat in Iraq be so bad?” This article explains that “staying the course” in Iraq or just exiting the war is both going to result in some sort of defeat and ultimately chaos. The author of the article, Leslie Gelb, relates the war in Iraq to Vietnam. In Vietnam, after a war that lasted a decade and had tens of thousands of deaths, our nation accepted defeat. Gelb even believes that when Americans do leave Iraq, consequences will be even worse than Vietnam. We should begin to accept defeat, but also try to minimize the possible consequences.
Leslie Gelb makes many good points are gives Americans are scenario of possible consequences of withdrawing troops and ending the war. We find that many Americans believe in ending the war. But this simply can not be done overnight. A process like this will take time in order to complete it orderly.
Personally, I agree more with Gelb’s article. I agree that we are not being faced with defeat, but should find ways to minimize consequences. If the troops are not withdrawn properly, are nation could be facing dreadful consequences.



http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/06/14/signs_of_success_in_iraq/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1546366,00.html