Panel time on Brit: The NYTimes gal (forgot her name) claims a democrat Iraq is decades away. Bill Kristol says...garbage...there is a unity government, democratically elected in place today. The problem is the security issue, and they do need to get a handle on that. WOT and Iraq connection is still not being made well enough, imho. I think talking heads need to continue to say what Bush said: "OBL said it was the front", Maliki said it was the front in the war on terror. Kristol going after Juan today, so far no slap down from Brit....but I sense it is coming! I love Brit....talking about the dems leading spokesman: Murtha and his strategy of retreat! Brit is the BEST.
Off topic but I thought it was interesting that Rush Limbaugh had a guest on his show last week. He was the son of Juan Williams and he's a Republican!
He's 26 and running for DC City Council.
Krystol is good today, but he should stop his anti-Rummy stance.
To start with Saddam's Iraq was our most immediate threat. We could NOT commit significant military forces to another battle with Saddam hovering undefeated on our flank nor could we leave significant forces watching Saddam. The political containment of Iraq was breaking down. That what Oil for Food was all about. An attempt by Iraq to break out of it's diplomatic isolation and slip the shackles the UN Sanctions put on it's military. The War on Terrorism is different sort of war. In the war on Terrorism, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone.
Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The "Holy" soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is hostile to guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
Look at the map? Iraq, for which we had the political legal and moral justifications to attack, is the strategic high ground of the Middle East. A Geographic barrier that severs ground communication between Iran and Syria apart as well as providing another front of attack in either or into Saudi Arabia as needed.
There are other reasons to do Iraq but here is the strategic reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. I often worry that the American people have neither the maturity, nor the intellect" to understand. It's so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like "No Blood for Oil" or "We support the Troops, bring them home" then to actually THINK. Problem is these people have NO desire to co-exist with us. They see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. They think their "god" will bless them for killing Westerners.
So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest realize we are serious. See in the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming "We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad" and recruit the next round of "holy warriors". Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it
I have been watching Brian Wilson's Fox Sunday show...from the start and there is only 50 minutes left.
I haven't heard even ONE mention of the Plamegate subject..not ONE!
But, he has been plugging a segment on childhood obesity with the Arkansas Governor ALL DAY!! sheesh