Posted on 03/10/2006 5:26:23 AM PST by Tolik
Here, it seems like this thing will go on forever, with only a bunch of ungrateful and inept muslims left to run the place.
As I'm sure you know, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment has been serving in Iraq (its second deployment there) for the past year.
As the regiment prepares to come home, it has received the letter pasted below. I believe many of you will find it an interesting
counterpoise to much of what we read in the press.
From: Mayor of Tall âAfar, Ninewa, Iraq
In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tallâ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing
with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists
who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many
months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us
restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and
gavenew life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and
stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our
schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed. Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were
barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every
corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the
city. Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses
of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order
to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their
young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and
delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry
Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawiâs followers
after harsh fighting, kiling many terrorists, and forcing the
remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas,
where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and
Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are
not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.
The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom.
Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character
of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by
means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military
feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be
studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with
little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the
skill and precision f surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers
in the city without causing unnecessary damage.
God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated
these brave men and women. From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget. To the
families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all
bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their
sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their
souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never
be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that
which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in
every flower growing in this land. Let America, their families, and the
world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.
Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment,
I havenât the words to describe the courageof its officers and
soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these
legendary heroes and their brave families.
NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID
AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall âAfar,
Ninewa, Iraq
I don't know where Hanson is going with this but this, to me, has always been the solution of choice when dealing with muslims.
I have believed it completely and absolutely, due to one simple fact: a complete undestanding of islam, and the culture it has nurtured world wide.
The reasoning is simple: I am not willing to sacrifice the lives of sons, friends or neighbors to save a mad, primitive, savage, people from themselves.
If these savages, with or without their oil wealth, had to deal with rebuilding a country with no help from the US whatsoever, to feed themselves, to obtain even the most basic necessities of life, they would have neither the energy, the time or the wealth to travel internationally exporting their mass murder.
Destroy their larger cities; the basic infrastructures: communications, travel, transportation, energy production, pipelines, government buildings, bridges, major road features, dams, and keep doing it if they persist, eventually they will lose the will or the means to export their culture.
An uncompromising promise to do exactly that should solve our problem; with the minimum of cost in wealth or lives.
Bush, or any other administration will, if nothing changes dramatically, have to fight violently either muslims or Americans on American soil sooner or later.
Continued political myopia or tone deafness guarantees it.
No muslim immigration whatsoever, in the foreseeable future is an essential part of the plan to survive.
Yep, I saw Ralph Peters on Brit Hume's show yesterday.
And ya know Peters is no big fan of how the war has been fought; so it was very encouraging to hear that he was pleased by what he saw there.
"...the average American did have the stomach for this war, and was glad we fought it, but that the msm simply talked them out of it..."
Excellent!
As much as I admire VDH, I find this sentence obscene. It assumes something I reject totally: that the lives within a pathological, killer society are worth exactly the equivalent number of American lives.
If those people cannot save themselves, and simultaneously contribute to the continuing export of murder and mayhem, then their lives are worth no more than cockroaches, even the images of wide-eyed children suffering the consequences affects me less and less, as the endless Politically Correct games play out.
In short, I am not willing to continue losing sons, neighbors and friends for the sole purpose of "feeling good" about being right, without changing a thing.
It is interesting how many historical events are practically pre-programmed with the prior actions (or inactions).
Giving up on Vietnam emboldened Soviets with the Afghanistan gamble. American response was to support mujahideen; and Osama got the taste of action there.
Not finishing off Saddam in 1991 guaranteed that we would have to face the challenge in the future, again.
While many of these events took years or decades to unravel, our cultivated 24/7 attention span eliminates an important virtue of patience. We (as a nation, not FR-people) are loosing forest view behind the trees. Nobody can act without mistakes, but in general, the course in the Middle East is the correct one (according to me). I agree with Ladeen's call "faster, please", but I want to add mine here "patience, please".
To well-informed, clear thinking people outside the Beltway, the war in Iraq has been a success. Difficult and costly, but a success...thanks to our wonderful military.
I find it amazing that people have forgotten what it was like wondering what Saddam was up to every day.
I fear you are right. The Republicans have now given up (willingly) the moral high ground, and that will not be lost on the electorate this fall.
Agreed. For now, however, the mushy Republicans are somewhat better than the irresponsible Dems. It's probably going to take the next president, with a new burst and fire, to put us over the top and to weed out the incompetents.
But if you liken this to the Cold War, your position would be essentially that we can't win until we get rid of Soviet communism, which was true, but it needn't have stopped us from pushing out the communists from Cuba, Vietnam, and so on. Indeed, the Soviets are gone, but those communists are still there. Iran will get its turn.
The number you DON'T see---and it's almost impossible to find---is the number of terrorist/"insurgents" being killed. These people are being destroyed at UNSUPPORTABLE rates. There is no military operation---guerilla or otherwise---in history, no matter how well supported from the outside, that has sustained the levels of losses that the terrorists in Iraq have and not collapsed. The math is unrelenting. Even the Japanese ran out of voluntary kamikazes.
This is exactly what happened in Vietnam. Our guys won on the battlefield, but the politicians and journalists lost the war by demoralizing the home front. Let's not let that happen again.
I cannot believe it. Vic made it through an entire article without comparing the action in Iraq to Greece or Athens. Doesn't make his point any more plausible but it's still suprising.
Nope. Maybe you should listen to the people on the ground and not the Know Nothing Talking Heads. This is pure nonsense. Just more talking point garbage by fools who know nothing about Iraq. One way to make the situation ungovernable would be to come in an play Imperialist games with the Iraqis. There is a deep and wide reservoir of resentment for the way the Brits micromanaged their early years.
As we are seeing right now as the terrorist try to spark an Iraqi Civil War, the Iraqis are strongly nationalistic. There is a pretty sever backlash going on against the Terrorists BECAUSE they are outsiders trying to dictate the Iraqi's future. Going in and dictating a break up of the country would of been extremely stupid on the USA's part.
Our congresscritters never had any "nerve" to lose. They are a group of spineless cowards interested only in remaining in power. We WILL withdraw a lot of troops before November, it WILL be too soon in terms of longterm success in Iraq, and it WILL be totally political.
Remember this on election day: EVERY election day henceforward. The people we are paying to represent our interests think we are stupid. I'll never vote for another incumbent, and I don't give a damn about party, any longer. Given the choice of a RAT against a Republican incumbent, I'll sit it out. To Hell with the lot.
I don't know where you are getting your information from re the number of enemy casualties, but I don't buy the body count metric. We tried that in Vietnam. If Iran and Syria keep on sending people in, there will still be a level of conflict and insurgency. If we can dry up the water the guerrillas swim in, the insurgency will die. It took the British 12 years in Malaysia. We need patience and perseverance.
Always find it amazing how Americans, who can hardly find the Middle East on the Map, are self proclaimed "experts" on how the Iraqis must live. Trying to tell people how they must live is IMPERIALISM. It doesn't work.
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