Bring the Iraq Occupation to an End

Newsmax ^ | 1/19/05 | Christopher Ruddy

[paudio]

Of all of the Monday morning quarterbacking, one perspective is indisputable: On Election Day Americans voted against John Kerry.

And America also voted for George W. Bush – as the better candidate of the two.

I do not believe George Bush’s significant election victory was a mandate for the continuance of the Iraq war, however.

Like most Americans, I supported the President’s war on terror. The removal and capture of Saddam Hussein has made America and the world safer.

Mission accomplished!

[jusduat]

Waiting........5...4...3..2..1

[MJY1288]

A pull out now would dishonor all those who were injured and killed in the liberation of Iraq. I'm surprised Chris Ruddy could be this ignorant

[SmithL]

Thank you for sharing that.

[pierrem15]

There seems to have been a flood of 'conservatives' (including Gingrich, whose cowardly yammering I have found both embarassing and nauseating) who are now arguing we should bugger out.

To paraphrase Churchill: if we seek peace through dishonor, in the end we shall have neither.

I guess these guys were as bad as the dems, for like them, they only used the Iraq war for political purposes.

[mark502inf]

Mission accomplished!

Negative. We're not done yet. As President Bush said:

"The rise of a free and self-governing Iraq will deny terrorists a base of operation, discredit their narrow ideology, and give momentum to reformers across the region. This will be a decisive blow to terrorism at the heart of its power, and a victory for the security of America and the civilized world. ..America's task in Iraq is not only to defeat an enemy, it is to give strength to a friend - a free, representative government that serves its people and fights on their behalf. And the sooner this goal is achieved, the sooner our job will be done."

[Time is now]

NewsMax is becoming a bit irrelevant and this may be Ruddy's way of trying to draw attention to it.

[Mr.Pinette]

I agree, let's get out of there. If a civil war erupts, so be it. At least we have balanced the playing field, and they will now have a majority rule.

We can find oil somewhere else.

[26lemoncharlie]

I think we will leave Iraq sooner than you think!! For Iran or Syria of course, they both have to answer to the American People:

Syria: 800 Marines!

Iran: 1 Embassey and a whole bunch of hostages!

[paudio]

We can find oil somewhere else.

Huh ???

[KMC1]

What is Ruddy's deal? I used to like Newsmax...

[Mr.Pinette]

We are have an oil depedent economy. No one denies that. Securing the oil supply was a good idea. Spreading democracy, also good. But if it's going to cost us billion a year, not worth it.

[Billthedrill]

We are bringing the occupation to an end.

[elhombrelibre]

In any struggle, there are those who lose heart and wish to give up the fight often even when they're just inches from victory. With successful elections, even if not perfect, we should see that freedom is a force multiplier, especially as Iraqis begin self-rule and become stake holders in their own future. The forces of terror and tyranny will not succeed in Iraq unless we lose our nerve to finish the mission. This is why the terrorists use the media and the Liberal media uses the terrorists for similar goals of stopping this unthinkable spread of self-ruling democracies. That some "Conservatives" fail to grasp the struggle as one of epic proportion only shows how they've given up on the War on Terror and are willing to return to the normalcy of terrorists striking America, as was done without costs to the terrorists during the Clinton years. We can expect more 9/11's if we fail in Iraq, not fewer. We cannot walk away without being perceived as having lost, and the victims won't only be the Iraqis. They will be Americans everywhere.

[Cicero]

Chris Ruddy has done some good things in the past, especially in the clinton years. But he just doesn't understand what's going on here.

Politics and war are messy and seldom go smoothly. You have to be patient. If a politician consistently does the wrong thing, like clinton, he should be blamed. If a politician does the right thing, like Bush, but it is harder than we might like to finish the job, that's life. You still keep pressing on until the job is done.

Ruddy says the war to remove Saddam was a good thing. But there's no point in removing Saddam if he leave in a hurry and some Saddam clone moves in to take his place. If the war was worth fighting it is worth nailing it down, as far as such things are possible in this world.

We'll never get a perfect solution. But if we carry the job through, we'll get a better solution than if we get impatient and quit.

[xm177e2]

Pulling out now would lose all of the gains we've made, all of the infrastructure we've set up, and the nascent Iraqi government. We can't put Iraq down and just come back where we left off if we think we need to go back in.

If we pulled out, the terrorists would win. I mean a literal victory, not in terms of symbolism. The terrorists would win. And they would take over the country. They would run it as a terror haven. They would export terrorism across the middle east moreso than Saddam did.

Pulling out now would encourage our enemies around the world: if they can hold on for long enough, we'll give up. What enemy would ever surrender to us again? Only if they needed more time to build up the force to keep us out. And once they built up that force, they would defy us.

Pulling out now would be a victory for evil. In addition to sponsoring terrorism abroad, the terrorists would turn the country into a hellhole like the Taliban did to Afghanistan--except the Taliban weren't trained by Saddam's secret police.

Pulling out now would be a victory for the defeatist leftists here at home who are convinced we will lose.

[OregonRepublican]

Im one that is starting to feel that. All Bush is saying were staying the course blah blah... well im starting to get tired of troops getting shot more and more each day, and more car bombs. When are we going to bring the planes in. Sorry a democracy in Iraq dosent look like it will happen for a long time. I wanna hear Bush give a speech telling us were going to step it up. My friend is in the miltary and alot of his friends have returned from there 2nd tour in Iraq and say its getting worse

[Dilbert56]

Enough!

In war, the victor is often not the stronger but the more persistent.

Enough whining about the "rising death toll". No accurate death toll goes down (at least since the first Easter).

Enough "rising level of violence". Does the United States really want to surrender because the terrorists can set off two car bombs a day rather than one? Is that really what we want to show the terrorists?

Enough talk about "rising casualty rates". November saw a huge increase in casualties as Fallujah was retaken. There was a similar jump in April of 2004. Other than that, the casualty rate has remained between 2 and 3 deaths per day.

Enough with the notion that our enemy is winning. The MSM won't report any of our progress so we need to get the CENTCOM press releases on our own. They lost 2,500 fighters in November in Fallujah. They are losing 30-50 a day in raids, round-ups, and firefights. They are losing, and doing so at an unsustainable rate.

Our men & women in Iraq, as well as the Iraqi people haven't given up. How can we, sitting on our asses safe at home, be unsupportive.

[Scholastic]

Thanks for posting this.

GOOD for Chris Ruddy!

I feel as though I had written this column, he makes a very sound and reasonable case, calling it like it is. It must have taken him lots of guts to write this.