THE SOMALIA STRATEGY

Another awful day in Iraq. Watching scenes of people celebrating the killing of soldiers, soliders who just liberated them from one of the worst tyrannies on the planet, is enough to make anyone want to leave the place in disgust. But that’s the point. Saddam always relied on the Somalia strategy. He believed – and probably still does – that the U.S. does not have the guts to stick this out and wear down the Sunni dead-enders now combined with Islamist terrorists. He planned on this kind of war of attrition from the minute he knew he was militarily finished. That makes our endurance all the more necessary. The slow collapse of American credibility in the 1990s will take time to reverse. And moments like yesterday are classic attempts to test our determination. Saddam and what he still represents must fail in full view of the world. And we have an irreplaceable opportunity to see it happen.