He is right about Iran and Syria (and Jill St. John etc). We should have at least TRIED to stop the "insurgents." Instead, we did nothing.
Correection: we should have taken the fight to Iran and Syria. Instead, we acted like it was all Al Qaeda, which is not true/is misleading. We have known for YEARS that Iran and Syria were involved in the killing of our men, and we let them off the hook.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Actually, Steyn's comment about Jill St. John is one of his rare misfires. In reality, she is brilliant and possesses a near genius-level IQ.
On a more serious note, it's also not the case that we haven't tried to interdict the insurgents and their supply lines from Iran and Syria. Our forces have repeatedly executed remarkably successful operations, from a military perspective, but which have been time and again aborted, undone, or rolled-back by the diplomatic and political authorities.
One such effort, which was highly publicized, was the abortive First Battle of Fallujah, where the Marines had the terrorists cornered and were ready to administer the coup de grace, but Paul Bremer allowed himself to be suckered by the promises of "local leaders" who were in fact insurgent sympathisers, and thus p***ed away the Marine's hard-won victory. No matter how we spin it here on FR, around the Arab world they consider that battle a victory for them.
Another successful campaign, though not highly publicised, which wound up being FUBAR'ed by the diplomats and politicians was the "river road" interdiction campaign which choked-off the supply line of men and materiel streaming into western Anbar province along the Euphrates River through the insurgent-controlled towns and bases near the Syria/Iraq border. Our troops did a tremendous job cleaning out those rat's nests on the Iraqi side, but when the moment arrived to finish the job AND send the proper message to Syria by taking-out the ones on the Syrian side, the diplomats and politicians lacked the will, lost their nerve, and pulled the plug. Eventually, as our forces redeployed into other missions in other areas, the insurgents simply flowed back into the vacuum and resumed their operations.
Upon consideration of all these factors, I believe things might have gone better if Jill St. John had been in charge. In addition to her intelligence, she would certainly have been a good morale booster and inspiration for the troops!