Cut losses: Leave Iraq

USA Today ^ | 10/28/2003 | Ivan Eland

[presidio9]

The brazen missile attack on the Al Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad and a recent spate of suicide bombings illustrate that anti-American violence is increasing in frequency, sophistication and deadliness. Moreover, a recent poll by an Iraq research center showed fewer than 15% of Iraqis see U.S. forces as liberators, down from a tepid 43% six months ago. That's an ominous sign that popular discontent over a prolonged occupation could cause anti-U.S. attacks to snowball. The only way to let the air out of the resistance is to quickly turn Iraq back to the Iraqis and withdraw U.S. forces. The violence arises primarily as a reaction to the invasion and occupation by a foreign superpower.

[ItsOurTimeNow]

Of course, no one in the press is astute enough, or has the khutzpah to link the increase in violent, terrorist attacks with the start of Ramadan.

[Grampa Dave]

ANOTHER VIETNAM? NO

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1010274/posts

ANOTHER VIETNAM? NO
New York Post ^ | 10/29/03 | RALPH PETERS


Posted on 10/28/2003 11:57 PM PST by kattracks



October 29, 2003 -- LET'S leave the phony pieties and hand-wringing to the presidential aspirants and celebrity journalists. Here's the truth:
* Thirty-six dead in a series of suicide bombings in Baghdad? The chump change of strategy. Cold-blooded, but true.

* Another American soldier killed in a roadside bombing? Every lost service member matters, but at the present casualty rate it would take 15 years for our dead in Iraq to surpass the number of Americans butchered on 9/11. Better to fight like lions than to die like sheep.

* Iraq another Vietnam? Hell, even Vietnam wasn't the Vietnam of left-wing baby-talk politics and campus political astrology. Our Vietnamese enemies represented a mass movement. The Iraqi terrorists represent a small, bloodthirsty movement to oppress the masses.

* Did Operation Iraqi Freedom create terrorists? No. It terrorized the terrorists. Now it's flushing them out of their hiding places. We'll be killing and capturing them for years. But that's the only approach that works.

* Has the War on Terror made Americans less safe? Despite the dishonest claims of Democratic presidential hopefuls, the answer is an unequivocal "No!" Where is the evidence that we're in greater danger now? Where are the terrorist attacks on our cities?

In this war, the only measurement that matters is the absence of attacks. Since 9/11, our government has taken the war to the terrorists and kept us remarkably safe.



* They'll attack America again and prove the War on Terror was a failure. Bull. Oh, we'll eventually be hit again. No counter-terror effort will ever be 100 percent effective. But if Terrorist No. 500 gets through, it doesn't mean there was no value in stopping the first 499. The proof of our success in this war is the undisturbed routine of our daily lives.

* Isn't there some way to stop the attacks in Iraq? Not in the short term. We face those who wish to turn back the clock, in some cases to the days of Saddam's rule, in others to a primitive theocracy. Our enemies are fanatics in the truest sense of the word. Every one we kill is a service to humanity.

* Doesn't the continuation of the attacks mean our approach is flawed? No. There's no magic bullet. This isn't a movie. It's a deadly, long-term struggle for incalculably high stakes.

And there is no rational, responsible alternative to persevering. The only disastrous choice we could make would be to give up.

* How long can the Iraqi terrorists maintain this pace of attacks? We don't know. The Iraqi terrorists themselves don't know. But we should be encouraged, not discouraged, that the best they can do is to ram a few suicide wagons into public buildings. They're not overrunning our troops. They're desperately scraping up all the suicide drivers they can. It's only surprising that they've been able to find so few.

* Do the Iraqi people support the terrorists? No. The Iraqi people just want to live in peace - without Saddam. They don't want our troops to stay forever, but few want us to leave tomorrow. The terror attacks will keep reminding them why they don't want the old regime back. What should we expect in Iraq? Imperfect results. It's an imperfect world. But even a partial success in establishing basic human rights, the rule of law and some form of democracy would be an unprecedented triumph in the region.

* Why are so few nations willing to help us? Because many political leaders want us to fail. Because the United States has returned to its original ideals, supporting freedom, self-determination, the rights of the individual and simple human decency.

Our example terrifies every one of Iraq's neighboring governments and infuriates the Europeans - who long profited from their political love affairs with dictators, even as they damned America for similar behavior.

We have taken a stand for freedom. And freedom still has few friends in this world.

THERE is only one way in which the situation in Iraq resembles Vietnam: Our enemies realize that they can't win militarily. This is a contest of wills much more than a contest of weapons. The terrorists intend to wear us down.

Our enemies are employing media-genic bombings to leap over our soldiers and influence our political leaders and our elections - just as the Vietnamese did. The suicide bombers themselves are deluded madmen, but the men behind the terror campaign calculate that, if they can just maintain a sufficient level of camera-friendly attacks, our military successes and all the progress of our reconstruction efforts will be eclipsed by a mood of dejection in Washington.

If the terrorists turn out to be right, the butcher's bill in the coming years and decades will be vastly higher than the casualty count in Iraq.

Ralph Peters' new book is "Beyond Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace."

[Nonstatist]

We need to close the borders and get Iraq's army up to par,more quickly than we've been doing.

[Right Wing Professor]

To preserve U.S. "credibility" nearly 40 years ago, American policymakers pursued an escalated war in Vietnam — when cutting their losses and getting out sooner ultimately would have salvaged more world esteem

Another liberal idiot who thinks that what the French think about us matters. What does he think geopolitics is, a popularity contest?

[Grampa Dave]

Media Has Blood On Its' Hands, Iraq GI Tells Rep.King
To Grampa Dave | 10/29/2003 8:09 AM PST sent




http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1010199/posts

Media Has Blood On Its' Hands, Iraq GI Tells Rep.King
Newsmax.com ^ | October 29, 2003 | Newsmax.com


Posted on 10/28/2003 9:57 PM PST by Lady In Blue




Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Wednesday Oct. 29, 2003; 12:12 a.m. EST

Media Has Blood on its Hands, Iraq GI Tells Rep. King

Rep. Peter King, R-NY, delivered a stark message on Tuesday from an unnamed U.S. military officer now stationed in Baghdad who believes negative press coverage of the U.S. war effort has cost American soldiers their lives.

While flying back to the U.S. aboard a military transport, King told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity via satellite phone, "I promised an American colonel yesterday, an Army colonel, that [I'd relay his message]: 'There's blood on the hands of the American media.'"

"He's lost men because of the terrible reporting and it's just creating a terrible atmosphere," King said the Army colonel told him.

"The troops have tremendous morale. But unfortunately the terrorists are encouraged and the Iraqi people are being dissuaded from cooperating with the American forces because of the terrible coverage back here," King said.

The unnamed GI, who King said had two graduate degrees, shared his disturbing assessment as the two flew by helicopter from the Baghdad airport to the Al Rashid hotel.

Paraphrasing the Army colonel's words, the New York Republican said, "I just want you to know that there's blood on the hands of the American media; that my men and women are going to die because of them."

The GI's message continued, "We are winning this war and the only way we can lose this is if the American people lose their nerve and that's because of what's going on in the American media."

King said he concurred with the Army colonel's complaint, saying, "What I saw is totally different from what the American media is reporting."

Noting that he was in Baghdad during the wave of terrorist attacks this weekend, King said that, "in spite of all of that, life is virtually normal in Baghdad."

"What the media doesn't show is that the rest of Baghdad is traffic jams, markets open . . . you would have thought you were in midtown Manhattan," the New York Republican contended.

"Life is so different when you're there from the way it's being portrayed in the media."

How many Freepers, who serve as 5th columnist stringers for these mediots have blood on their hands for stringing these stories 24/7 on Free Republic?

[Scannall]

Cut our losses and invade Syria, Iran and Lebanon. Put Jordan on notice and kick Saudi Arabias butt for good measure. Kill off any regime that sends a nickel to any terrorist or provides the slightest aid or comfort. That's the only way we can cut American losses, and I don't give a hoot about the other sides losses.

Dan

[RightWhale]

Savage says finish the job, sooner rather than later. If certain communities and neighborhood need to be ploughed under, then do it now.

[Pikamax]

"Even if such a plan did not work, stability in Iraq never has been vital to U.S. security interests. The threat from Saddam Hussein's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction was overstated. And economists from across the political spectrum always have been skeptical that Persian Gulf oil needs to be secured militarily. Yet their views have been ignored by vested interests in U.S. national security bureaucracies. "


This could be the dumbest thing I have ever read related to Iraq not written by alternet columnist.

[holdmuhbeer]

what a nitwit.

[ASA Vet]

If certain communities and neighborhood need to be ploughed under

Don't forget salt!

[presidio9]

We need to close the borders

Impratical. The effect on the rebounding Iraqi economy would be devestating.

[Tunehead54]

We leave now and Saddam and his baathists would roll into Baghdad tomorrow - back to pre-war slaughters (and then some) and all our guys will have died in vain not to mention validating terror as a form of political action. Sheesh.

Stupid, short-sighted, m%^#%@&#)&(&(*, &*^*^&#@*(&)_, *(&*(&*(, press.

Oh and the dim "candidates" each one who claims they would pull us out of Iraq immediately if elected has American blood on his hands and is ENCOURAGING attacks against our trtoops right up to the election. Grrrrrrrrrr!

---

[Grampa Dave]

The reality is the dangers that the $oddomite regime presented to Americans has been over looked and downplayed by left wing lunatic mediots like this POS writing this article for USA.

[finnman69]

Someone should remind this idiot that we are still in Korea and Kosovo to keep things stable.

[richardtavor]

Another liberal 'World' supporter. When are they going to realize that we are at war with France and the UN?

[Buggman]

Moreover, a recent poll by an Iraq research center showed fewer than 15% of Iraqis see U.S. forces as liberators, down from a tepid 43% six months ago.

Indeed. That's just the opposite of the polls that I've seen. What poll is he citing from, the one from the Outtahisass Institute?

[presidio9]

We leave now and Saddam and his baathists would roll into Baghdad tomorrow - back to pre-war slaughters (and then some) and all our guys will have died in vain not to mention validating terror as a form of political action. Sheesh.

To say nothing of the fact that we will have seen our last 5th column. Why risk everything helping the US overthrow a repressive regime if we don't stick around to finish the job? We have many friends in Iraq and we owe them a great deal. Clinton ignored this and thousands of Iraqis paid the bloody price for it.

[Gritty]

Ivan Eland is a fool.

Period.

[OldFriend]

Guess he thinks Israel ought to just give it up and let the pali's have the land!