Put up or shut up

Victor Davis Hanson nails it yet again on his blog. For now, the article is on the front page. Once it's archived, click the Archives link and then click Private Papers link, then click "Finish It or Forget It."

The people running this war know it's a war yet they still do some things that make us question that knowledge. As Victor writes:

There is a lesson in the saga of Sadr here that we really must relearn about this entire war. The United States, because it is militarily powerful and humane in the way that it exercises that force, usually can pretty much do what it wishes in this war against terrorists. In every single engagement since October 2001 it has not merely defeated but obliterated jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq. The only check on its power has been self induced: out of a misplaced sense of clemency it has often ceased prematurely the punishment it has inflicted on enemies—at Tora Bora, in the Sunni Triangle, during the looting of Baghdad, and now perhaps at Fallujah—and relented to enter into peace parleys, reconciliation, and reconstruction too early.

He goes on to list some of the things that we've been doing during this war and question the assumption that they're things we should be doing.

I personally don't advocate engaging in unrestricted warfare. That is not appropriate to the goals we are trying to accomplish. But I think Victor has a good point in that we may be going too far in the other direction.