WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED This is the true memoir of one US Air Force navigator’s journey from the schoolhouses of Air Training Command to the nuclear alerts of the Cold War to combat in a 35-year-old anachronism called the B-52. It is a first-hand account of life during the last days of Strategic Air Command, the early days of Air Combat Command and the ensuing military drawdown of the 1990s. From peacetime training exercises across the globe to combat operations in Desert Storm, Jim Clonts takes the reader inside the cockpit where life and death are seconds apart. Often comical, sometimes heart-pounding, other times tragic, WHEN PENGUINS FLEW AND WATER BURNED takes you into the world of military aviation, a crucible where warriors learn the true nature of character, conscience and mortality.

Iraq: How do we define victory?
by Jim Clonts, 2006

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT MILITARY.COM, July 31, 2006

It seems every time I turn on the television the mainstream media reports that the war in Iraq has become a quagmire and there is no end in sight. Many do not seem to understand that the initial objectives of the war in Iraq have been met, constituting a victory. What we’re fighting today in Iraq is something else entirely and defining victory in this conflict has become far more ambiguous.

Every military conflict requires defined objectives, both military and political. The accomplishment of these objectives defines victory. These objectives do not have to be extravagant or complex for the American people to recognize the correct course of action. What they doe require is persuasion. During World War II victory in Europe was defined as the destruction of the Third Reich. The Roosevelt Administration was masterful in both defining its objectives and making its case to the American people. Roosevelt was able to convince a frightened populace that prosecuting a war against Germany, a country that presented a threat but did not actually attack us, was to take precedence over the war with Japan, the nation that did rain bombs on US soil on December 7th. Of course Roosevelt’s strategy was correct, but if not for his mastery of politics, he might not have garnered the understanding and support of the American people.

Operation Iraqi Freedom is no more complex. The objectives are three-fold: remove a dangerous, murdering tyrant from power, stop his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and give the Iraqi people a shot at a government by the people and for the people. President Bush sold this to the American people and support was high for the war, both at home and abroad. Given Hussein’s history of invading his neighbors and using WMD against the Kurds and Iran, the objectives seemed reasonable and rational.

Three years later all of these objectives have been accomplished, with surprising success. The destruction and surrender of the Iraqi military took three weeks, ending Saddam’s tyranny and his quest for WMDs. Saddam Hussein himself was captured and is currently on trial for crimes against humanity. The people of Iraq have gone to the polls several times and elected a parliament and a prime minister. These results constitute a victory. Whether or not Iraq will mature into a stable republic is up to Iraqis. We gave them a chance, which is all we can do.

So why doesn’t it feel like a victory? Why does the violence continue? Why the car bombs? Why the suicide-bombers? Today in Iraq we are fighting a different war, against different enemies. Iraq is a seething cauldron of ethnic, cultural and religious factions vying for power. Some are ruthless despots, cast in the mold of Saddam Hussein, but most are Islamic-fascists who believe they are tools of God. For thousands of years power in the Middle East has been acquired by violence. Kings, pharaohs, emperors and the like, seized power by killing their opponents. Saddam Hussein arose in a wave of fascist bloodshed. The Ayatollahs of Islam rode a violent tide of religious fervor into power, a fervor that created and sustains a culture of suicidal terrorism in the name of the Muslim god.

We can be idealistic in our doctrine, but at some point we must be realistic. While we can wage war against nation-states, there is little we can do to stop determined, religious zealots from sitting around the breakfast table, smoking cigarettes and planning to blow up a car bomb in a crowded market. This is a fact of life in the Middle East. We cannot reason with these men, nor can they be swayed by mere words from their quest to kill the Infidel. We cannot allow ourselves to include enlightening these people as an objective of Middle East conflicts.

In our liberal society we cannot accept that another’s religious doctrine calls for our own slaughter. We are bewildered by the motivations that have driven the Middle Eastern mind for nearly a millennia. We feel responsible for the hatred these people feel toward us and if we just tried, we could enlighten them. The truth is we have a society that in the past could afford these self-disparaging thoughts, but if we can’t even recognize a self-proclaimed enemy whose central doctrine is our own destruction, those days are nearly over.

Although I believe we must have an ongoing, garrisoned military presence in Iraq, keeping our troops patrolling the streets as walking targets until every Islamic-fascist lays down his weapons and repents his sins is needless and insane. These people will sooner die than surrender. They must be captured or killed and in the end captured or killed by Iraqis. Living with the occasional car bomb and terrorist attack might be the price Iraqis pay for their freedom.

The Islamic-Fascist believes his authority comes from God. Nothing an Infidel says or does will cause this individual to give up his belief system and, as a result, no one can ensure the picket-fenced serenity of Middle-America will emerge in the Middle-East. Defining victory in this way will only lead to ruin and, yes, quagmires.

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