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Posted on 06/20/2009 7:55:56 PM PDT by lostnconfused99
Also compare the levels of terrorist activity (car bombings, suicide bombings, etc.) in Iraq before, during, and “after” the war. Iraqis are not living their lives in fear anymore. They’re getting on with the business of freedom and democracy.
Driving a Hummer has recently become a status symbol in Iraq. See this article: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2222604/posts
Yes, because it sent a clear signal that the US was not stopping with goatherd opium growers in Afghanistan. It is why Libya gave up its nuclear bomb development program.
The US has not been attacked in a coordinated fashion since 9/11, and the Invasion of Iraq was a big part of that reason. As Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Secretary and Great Man, said — we drew them (being those of a terrorist mindset) into Iraq where we killed as many as we could of them. Killed them there, in Iraq, rather than here.
Saddam Hussein (same last name as Obama’s middle, coincidentally) was the dictator of Iraq. There he encouraged terrorists abroad, for example paying the surviving families of successfully exploding “Palestinian” suicide bombers the equivalent of $25,000. Saddam’s secret police also ran terrorist operations abroad — Khalid Sheik Mohammed is an example of someone they worked closely with.
Some researchers suspect that Iraq secret agents were involved in the OKC terror bombing.
In any case Saddam gave safe haven and operating bases to terrorist groups, until we stopped him.
The War in Iraq was a true hard blow against global terror.
Live one!!!
When that war started, the idea was to take the war to where the terrorists are, and to keep them away from American soil. It worked for us. The terrorists swarmed Iraq and we fought them there. (It is always good to be able to pick your battle ground.) They were slowly but surely taken down by our brave soldiers. We have not been attacked again. And we have planted democracy in a very dry piece of earth. It will be up to the Iraqis to keep it. Peace is achieved through strength, and so is our national security. I know that sounds like a cliche, but it is a reality that you can observe in daily life as well as on the battlefield.
If you google the subject, stay away from sources Washington Post, New York Times & CBS/ABC/NBC/CNN. These sources are well-known to be biased for the anti-war liberal leftist democrats & obozo admin.
Oh well...Good question though....if only for the wrong reasons.
Yes. It worked. Saddam was funding terrorists by paying the families of homicide bombers. They have lost that funding from the Hussein regime.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . . don't be shy.
The idea of the invasion of Iraq was to split the terrorists on two different fronts, one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. The strategy worked. It was purely a military strategy, not a political one. The political strategy came after the military strategy and as a result of that strategy.
IATZ
I am sure you are right.
Libya dismantles program....
Yellow cake sent to N America....
Salmon Pak...
Known Al Q leaders killed....
Iraqi elections...
Al Q leaving Iraq....
US kept safe under Bush...
Also look up Transfer of materiel to Syria by Saddam prior to war....
TWA 800
OKC ohn Doe #2 & Padilla
For heaven’s sake, Saddam was found in a hole. His sons beheaded as many as 36 people per day. For a while, I counted them on an Excel spreadsheet; it was gruesome.
At the onset of the WoT, the US faced an almost insurmountable problem. The enemy were dispersed in a dozen countries, indistinguishable from civilians, and not in violation of local laws. Their best and brightest would gather the resources they needed to travel, get training, and move to their target country, to plan and carry out acts of terrorism.
With the invasion of Afghanistan, we soon learned that the enemy was concentrating in Pakistan, from where they would travel to Afghanistan. And while this created a similar problem to Vietnam, that is, then enemy acting from bases in Laos and Cambodia, but it also presented an opportunity.
Why not intentionally use Iraq, a far more desirable terrorist destination, as a “roach motel”, where the enemy would concentrate to fight our soldiers, instead of fomenting civil war at home, or traveling to western nations to commit terrorist acts against our civilians?
From hither and yon, the finest of al-Qaeda’s recruits came streaming into Iraq, into many situations that could easily be described as “death traps”.
For example, our large but isolated bases were surrounded by kill zones of perhaps five miles depth. Usually, on entry from Syria, the bold new recruits would make a beeline for the first US base they could find, and disappear, never to be heard from again.
This technique was enlarged upon, so that prior to major battles, such as Fallujah, terrorists would stream into the city, thinking it a safe harbor, from which their Caliphate would grow. In turn, much planning insured a similar result, with very high enemy casualties.
Importantly, once al-Qaeda’s best and brightest were eliminated, those that remained had far less chutzpah. That is, they didn’t have enough fortitude to leave their neighborhood and country in search of training, then travel to a foreign nation to commit terrorist acts.
Ironically, by their sheer vicious brutality against Iraqis, al-Qaeda did much to put itself out of business. The Iraqis soon hated the “Arabs”, in this case meaning foreigners, and eventually took up arms against them, unmercifully.
But the end result is that the effectiveness of al-Qaeda was terribly diminished by Iraq, and their considerable losses there did much to neutralize their ongoing threat. And while this reduction continues unabated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq should be given full and fair credit for its part in the overall War on Terror.
IATZ!
This Zot seems a little harsh, except for zottee’s lack of comment.
Good job.
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