Peace in Iraq - We must address the will to fight

Posted on December 4, 2006
Filed Under General |

Wars are won, not by destroying an enemy’s capability to fight, but by destroying their will to fight. Throughout history, whenever the will to fight remains the battle continues as it does in Iraq.

It seems to me that achieving stability and peace in Iraq requires more debate about what will cause the various complex factions in Iraq to lose the will to fight each other.

And if winning the war in Iraq means peace and stability in Iraq, I think we owe it to all that have given their lives and futures to this idea to find a way to eliminate the will to fight, not just the capability to fight.

There are some who make the argument that the size of US presence in Iraq prevents the Iraqi government from deploying a military presence strong enough to stop the fighting. This presumes that there is a military option to secure peace, if only the military is strong enough.

A military option strong enough to secure peace would require an enormous suppression of people who still want to fight and will likely continue to do so even if it causes the deaths of many of their followers and fellow Iraqis. The result of this course of action is likely to be a new authoritarian government not unlike the one that existed before, although it would likely be Shiite dominated instead of Sunni dominated.

I don’t know enough about the complex web of different Shiite and Sunni factions to know what can be used as the common ground for peace, but unless we find the way to eliminate the will to fight there will be no peace in Iraq.

We must eliminate the will to fight. How we do that is discussion we need to have.

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