My brother and sister are both extremely anti-Iraq war, and in the past have seemed to live to bombard me with their predictions of doom.
This past Thanksgiving, I waited patiently for the onslaught I knew would come. This time I had prepared. The inevitable attack came with the snide opener ..."Well, what do you think of the Iraq war NOOOWWWW"?...Huh?...Huh...?
I replied that I thought the war was already won...by our side.
Mockingly grinning from ear to ear, in unison, they pounced. "Oh really?"
"Yes, the outcome is now inevitable, you have chosen the wrong side to root for. The insurgency has now been reduced to having to send 10 year olds, the retarded, and recently in the Amman bombings we see the use of valued lieutenants sent to die for the cause. This indicates to me their recruiting is headed in the wrong direction."
"Is that all you've got?"
"No. The withdrawal you are calling for will soon happen, and it will leave the insurgency with the now-proven losing tactic of having to kill fellow Muslims and Arabs in order to succeed. Incidentally, can you name one strategic victory the jihad can claim in Iraq?"
They could not name one. I proceeded to itemize the failures of the jihad....failure to seed civil war, failure to stop the election of an interim government, failure to stop the vote on the constitution, failure to derail Bush's timetable for each election, failure to expel the infidel..."they have succeeded however, in achieving ONE of their goals....can either of you tell me what that is?
Silence.
"They have succeeded in HARDENING THE HEARTS of people like you...they have succeeded in getting you to embrace their cause of preventing the liberation of 27 million from unspeakable tyranny."
I'm not so smart. What had occurred here is I had been passive on previous occasions with their sniping at the war, and I had boned up on this forum prior to going home for Thanksgiving. I got most of the above from astute Freepers on this forum. The key to the whole thing is to position yourself for the coup-de-grace, calling a lefty hard-hearted really hits them at their core.
Anyway, this is the first time I feel I have won the argument, as they could not refute anything I said.
WOW! That's amazing. Their problem was that you were so dead on with the facts.
You should have taken video! How did the rest of the meal go?
Excellent. You have warmed my heart this morning with your account. I shall use your tack in my next argument. Thank you.