Dans Papers - May 11, 2007 - Regroup & Wait For Further Orders, Men

Last Tuesday was the fourth anniversary of the occasion when President Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier in full combat garb with the banner MISSION ACCOMPLISHED behind him. And I've been thinking about this.

I think the Democrats, with their mandate from the American people, ought to begin to speak to the President in the language he best understands -- American Military Language. The Democrats shouldn't be talking about how we have to get out of Iraq, how we need a new strategy, how we should set a timetable for withdrawl. Mr. Bush hears this stuff, and his military advisors translate it to him as Cut and Run or an Invitation to the Enemy, or an Acknowledgement of Defeat.

I think the Democrats would be best advised to describe what they have in mind as a Tactical Withdrawl.

We are not abandoning our worldwide struggle against Islamic Extremists. We are not giving up on the Middle East. It is just a Tactical Withdrawl from Iraq to regroup, refit, rearm and readdress the situation in a different way. The military has done it over and over since its founding. Such tactics are part of the curriculum up at West Point -- they're all over the military books that they study there. Look at the Battle of New Orleans, where we tactically retreated and then surprised them from the rear. This wasn't Trenton, where we charged, fired our guns and the British kept a runnin'.

It also fits neatly into the President's worldview, which is that we are fighting a World War against a sophisticated enemy -- a long and difficult haul that will extend well into the rest of this century.

There are many examples of tactical withdrawls in military history. At Stalingrad during World War II, the Russians fled to the other side of the Volga River, essentially abandoning the City to the Nazis in what the Nazis announced was a great victory, only to have the Russians turn the tables with a massive end run that cut off the Germans' links to their supply trains. Surrounded, they surrendered. The Islamic warrior Saladin retreated from a superior British Army, let them charge up to the top of a hill to declare victory and then returned with a new tactic -- endless siege -- 'till the British surrendered. The Greeks laid siege to Troy for years and years and when that didn't work, they withdrew. The Trojans rejoiced because the Greeks had retreated -- then the Greeks returned with the acknowledgement that they had indeed cut and run, and so now, in tribute to the Trojan victors, they would give them this giant wooden horse. And no, those trap doors were just for carpenters to go in and maintain the statue from the inside.

I think "tactical retreat," as a phrase for the President to consider, would work. We do this Tactical Retreat, monitor the situation, refit the soldiers, repair the equipment and all the while watch closely because we're going to do a few false feints -- you remember how, during World War II, we sent a pretend armada across the English Channel at Cherbourg so the Nazis would think we were attacking over there before we attacked at Normandy, and sure enough the Germans were caught with their pants down? We'll be coming back -- who knows where?

We get those Islamic Militant Al-Qaeda people out in the square in the center of downtown Baghdad celebrating, and we'll have 'em right where we want them.