“This fight depends on securing the population, which must understand that we — not our enemies — occupy the moral high ground.” — Gen. David Petraeus, May 10, 2007

Oh, they must, must they?

With his single sentence, Gen. Petraeus reveals what’s wrong with our Iraq policy. It seems that victory depends on something over which we have no control — the point of view and behavior of people in Iraq.

Consider the “surge.” Even if our troops achieve the goal of “securing the population” by securing Baghdad, success still rides on subsequent Iraqi behavior: whether murderously competing Iraqi sects decide to come together — what you might call a big “whether.”

Somehow, I’m practically alone among conservatives in believing this to be a dangerously ill-conceived policy, and I think I know why. The Iraq policy itself is an outgrowth of another dangerously ill-conceived policy of our leaders to avoid any rational assessment of Islamic culture. Most people with even an elemental understanding of institutional Islamic antipathies toward non-Muslims and non-Muslim culture would balk at spending blood and treasure for Gen. Petraeus’ “hearts and minds” strategy.

Still, we persist in ordering American forces onto Iraq’s meanest streets to win the allegiance of civilians.

Is this a war plan, or a Miss Universe contest?

Recently, I came across a heart-stopping story from “A Man Called Intrepid,” William Stevenson’s book about World War II intelligence operations. It concerned a ghastly, brilliant British air raid on Copenhagen in spring 1945. The objective, next door to a school, was a Gestapo prison. There, Danish underground leaders were being tortured, thus compromising the entire underground network and bona fide nuclear secrets and potentially resulting in the diversion of 200,000 German troops to fight American forces. The air raid was a stunning success. It was also a terrible tragedy. Not only did the British lose 10 airmen, but 27 teachers and 87 children were killed, with many more civilians badly injured.

One of the raid’s planners, Ted Sismore, later returned to the bombed school in Copenhagen to offer an explanation. “The parents of the dead children, to his astonishment, gave him comfort. ‘They wanted me to know the raid was necessary.’”

The Danes knew his heart, and were of one mind. This could hardly be more different from Iraq for many reasons, including cultural ones separating Islamic and Western cultures. Gen. Petraeus decrees Iraqis “must understand that we — not our enemies — occupy the moral high ground.” But does their political-religious culture even permit such an understanding? We must face up to this question if we ever want a winning war plan.

(Diana West is a columnist for the Washington Times.)