Pat asks, "Is Bush Seeking a 'Decent Interval'?" (on Iraq withdrawal)

American Conservative ^ | Oct. 28, 03 | Buchanan

[hchutch]

Better to be isolated doing the right thing than to be with the crowd ignoring a threat or worse.

We learned from England's mistake at Munich.

Meanwhile, Pat Buchanan's being a Copperhead again.

[jwalsh07]

Is Pat hitting the sauce again?

[Keith]

So this is the latest missive from Pat Vallandigham?

...look it up....

[dts32041]

Nope just asking questions of the rascally republicians, you know the big spenders and wimps.

[churchillbuff]

ignoring a threat or worse.

What threat? That's what I want to know. Freepers scorned Blix when he said give him more time to search for WMDs -- but now our own inspectors say the same thing - they need more time. WMDs was the reason, we were told, that we had to go in. Yet there wasn't any evidence of them. And there isn't now. So I ask, What threat? Please don't tell me we had to go in because Saddam was a murdering tyrant - because by that reasoning we'd have to invade many countries in the world, and I'm not up for a return to the draft. No, it WMDs that was the "threat" , and our people are having as much difficulty finding them as Hans Blix had.

[hchutch]

Seems to me that Pat is the one who wants to wimp out...

[Mad Dawgg]

"Pat asks, "Is Bush Seeking a 'Decent Interval'?" (on Iraq withdrawal)"

Mad Dawgg asks: "Is Pat off his meds... again?"

[hchutch]

I did not like messing around with the UN, anyhow.

If you read David Kay's report, you'd find that Saddam was in clear violation of the 1991 cease-fire. Reason enough to go in. The fact there ARE al-Qaeda connections (Ahmed al-Ani is one chap in particular I'm glad we have in custody. What did he and Mohammed Atta talk about in
Prague? And what about that airliner at Salman Pak?) is another reason we had to go in.

If you weant to support Buchanan's foreign policy, which is based in ignoring threats and/or cowardice, that's your business. I believe that the neo-conservaitves have a much better grasp on the situation and how to deal with it.

[anoldafvet]

Pat, you're a has-been, why don't you just go away and STFU.

[churchillbuff]

The fact there ARE al-Qaeda connections

Extremely tenuous - - Bush himself said, the other day, there aren't connections. But answer the question: WHERE ARE THE WMDs? Fortunately, we don't have a MEMORY HOLE in this country, so you can look up the news articles from last year and last spring - - it was WMDs that everyone was talking about. It was WMDs that made an invasion necessary. But we didn't have evidence of them, then, and we don't have evidence of them now. We couldn't wait to give Blix more time - - the threat was too great!!! But now our own people need "more time". Please, if Clinton were pulling this, you'd admit it's a load of snafus. Don't let the fact it's a Republican enterprise blind you to the truth that it's a mistake.

[Petronski]

We are virtually friendless in Baghdad.

"Virtually?" I guess the Iraqis [virtually all of them] want us out and by force of logic a return to status quo ante.

Right.

[FairOpinion]

It's a disgrace to even ask. If we withdraw, we are letting the terrorists win, which encourages them to perform more terrorist attacks and kill more Americans.

We should remember that:

"Somalia was a sign to bin Laden. The US was weak. In August 1993, after a series of bloody attacks on U.N. peacekeepers in Somalia, President Clinton launched a mission: he sent in a force of Rangers and Special Forces units to capture the brutal warlord Mohammad Farrah Aidid and restore order. In the ensuing urban gun battle, 18 American soldiers were killed and another 73 injured. On the Somali side there were 1,500 casualties. The Clinton administration began withdrawal of US forces in October, 1993. This told bin Laden that the US had no stomach for war casualties.

bin laden 1st fatwah 1996

"But your most disgraceful case was in Somalia; where- after vigorous propaganda about the power of the USA and its post cold war leadership of the new world order- you moved tens of thousands of international force, including twenty eight thousands American solders into Somalia. However, when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear. It was a pleasure for the "heart" of every Muslim and a remedy to the "chests" of believing nations to see you defeated in the three Islamic cities of Beirut , Aden and Mogadishu.

Al Qaeda saw US withdrawal from Somalia, as a sign of weakness

[hchutch]

That is the problem: It was NOT a mistake to remove Saddam.

I'm sorry he is no longer in power so Pat can kiss up to him. But if you expect me to call his removal a mistake, you're in for a disappointment.

[Huck]

Indeed, his actions—going back, hat in hand, to a UN he called “irrelevant”

He never called the UN irrelevant. Pat's a liar.

[paul51]

Bush himself said, the other day, there aren't connections.

I missed that part. Transcript?

[churchillbuff]

Where are the WMDs?

Sure, Saddam is bad. So is Mugabe. Do you want us to send 100,000 troops into Zimbabwe? And the list of tyrants just starts there. I grew up believing we send our young people into harm's way when our own national security is threatened - - not to liberate every country in the world that's under the heel of a dictator, when there's no clear threat to us. We were told that the threat from Saddam was spelled WMD - - but Blix couldn't find them, and now we can't either.

[dyed_in_the_wool]

WMDs was the reason, we were told, that we had to go in.

No it wasn't. We were making a point that we won't allow terrorist supporting regimes to continue with the status quo.
We already had a mandate (18 of them, actually) to go after Iraq, so we finally kept our word.
We also, in that act, sent a very real message to Syria and Iran and North Korea.

If you think this was about WMD, then you're believing the DNC lie and not understanding Bush's foreign policy at all.

[Sofa King]

"The president’s problem in Iraq is the result of an unnecessary war. But it is our problem now. Solution: admit the mistake, turn around, get out with all deliberate speed. We liberated Iraq from Saddam, but the future of Iraq is for them to decide, not us."

Yeah- that worked so well in Afghanistan (the first time around with the Soviets).