Posted on 03/19/2006 4:33:38 AM PST by Hannah Senesh
Leaving Iraq now would be like handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a column published on Sunday, the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
"Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis," he wrote in an essay in The Washington Post.
Rumsfeld said "the terrorists" were trying to fuel sectarian tensions to spark a civil war, but they must be "watching with fear" the progress in the country over the past three years.
In London, former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Sunday that Iraq is in a civil war and is nearing the point of no return when the sectarian violence will spill over throughout the Middle East.
"It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is," he told BBC television.
Rumsfeld's view was that the Iraqi insurgency was failing. "The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case," he wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretzdaily.com ...
"We cannot win a PC war", AMEN brother! LBJ tried that in Vietnam and men died for no good reason.
I believe we are on the same page.
Did Shock and Awe work in Iraq? You bet you’re a— it did.
We may have a civil war in Iraq, as we did in the US, but we also have elections not only in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, and Bush has virtually banished the hold that Damascus had on Lebanon.
While the same liberal green earth protectors will allow the scorched earth tactics of Saddam Hussein to go unpunished, while they lobby congress for a woman’s right to choose, they decry the actions of this administration that have resulted in freeing millions of women in the Arab world of a more brutal repression of their wills.
The same weak-kneed naysayers who were telling us that by interfering in Arab countries we would ignite a firestorm of hatred and terror have conveniently ignored the fact that as a result of the policies of this Republican Whitehouse, Libya has surrendered WMD’s, tens of thousands of Chritians, Druze, and Muslims, as well as Sunnis and Shi’a formed an unprecedented coalition and marched in the streets of Lebanon which ended the reign of Hariri’s Syrian-backed replacement caved into the demands of the coalition reformers.
Tell them we have heard their counsel and warnings and we chose to follow our President and his administration. We chose a leader with vision and strength who has proven that his policies are working. We reject their pessimism and deploy their politics of anti-warism to gain power. Their policies have emboldened our enemies, have put Americans in harms way and they risk our national security. Tell them that we abhor the ugly insinuation that our finest and bravest men and women are worse then terrorists.
Tell them we do not believe their propaganda about how the president lied and how his policies are failing. Tell them to join us or we will stand against them in the next election.
the question that should be asked by those advocating a loss in Iraq, because that is what a withdrawl would be, is what then?
Does anyone think we could lose in Iraq and not lose in Afghanistan?
I agree that "God knows", and we do, but obviously Iyad doesn't.
Any bunch of nuts with half a brain between them could make sure that 50-60 Americans per day died. If they found just one Saudi sugar-daddy to support it, and no strategic goal other than striking terror, I'm sure they could continue it indefinitely and avoid being caught - perhaps until & unless martial law took over. That doesn't create an American "civil war"; that's terrorism.
I could not agree more with this statement. I thought a little history from what I consider to be a liberal website would highlight the fact that liberty always comes at a price. Someone said "freedom is not free".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_war
"Ultimately the distinction between a "civil war" and a "revolution" or other name is arbitrary, and determined by usage. The successful insurgency of the 1640s in England which led to the (temporary) overthrow of the monarchy became known as the English Civil War. The successful insurgency of the 1770s in British colonies in America, with organized armies fighting battles, came to be known as the American Revolution. In the United States, and in American-dominated sources, the term 'the civil war' almost always means the American Civil War, with other civil wars noted or inferred from context." The term English Civil War (or Wars) refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between English Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651. The first (1642–1645) and the second (1648–1649) civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The third war ended with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on September 3, 1651.
So what's new about the terror in Iraq? Nothing, it is the natural consequence of change.
Certainly all countries who support terrorism must be neutralized. We must also embolden the populations of these oppressive governments by a show of strength that exceeds the threats of their governments. But we will need the Ted Kennedy's of our government to join us in the fight instead of standing in our way. Pray for Teddy, perhaps only God can change his attitude at this point.
LOL! As Manuel Rodriquez would say, We don't need no stinking Ted Kennedy! Pray for Ted? Let Green Peace save the whales.
The first step, in winning this war, is to get rid of the press; including prosecuting anyone who publishes anything other then the official line for treason. Just do that; take away the sounding board for those who have committed themselves to terror, and it will end quickly.
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