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Abandoning Iraq
RealClearPolitics ^ | November 8, 2006 | David Warren

Posted on 11/08/2006 4:00:01 PM PST by nosofar

Regardless of its final composition, and regardless of other pressing issues or its mandate, the leading item of business for the new U.S. Congress will be Iraq.

<--snip-->

The fate that will befall all those millions of courageous Iraqis, showing the dye on their fingers after they had voted -- in defiance of all the terror threats -- will not come as a surprise to me, either. They are being sold out, as the Vietnamese were before them. But the consequences of abandoning Iraq will come home to the United States and the West, in a way Vietnam never touched us.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; war
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To: BeHoldAPaleHorse

I won't be too upset when New York goes up in a flash of light, either...


61 posted on 11/08/2006 4:45:52 PM PST by Uncle Vlad (You cannot protect the peoples' civil liberties if you refuse to protect the people.)
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To: nosofar

I haven't had much to say about the election, because, frankly, the fate of the Iraqis who are on this side of freedom is terrifying me if the dems pull out. I envision blood bath killings of those who cooperated with those horrible Americans.


62 posted on 11/08/2006 4:46:08 PM PST by Texas_shutterbug
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To: nosofar
David Warren has it exactly right. His analysis is faultless. I would welcome an even more detailed one on the Turkish traducement of American effort in Iraq.

America is indeed decadent, not in the moral sense, even though that is true, BUT in the sense that the people cannot discern between tyrrany and freedom anymore in the face of leftist politics and the MSM slimes.

And we will pay for it as a people.

63 posted on 11/08/2006 4:48:38 PM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal flatulance goes the best hope of the West, and who wants to be a smart feller?)
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To: LS
... any way out?

Prof., you probably know the cases better than I but there seems to be a common fatal tendency that tyrants, thugs, and dictators have: they tend to strike a little too quickly. They cannot restrain themselves long enough to finish the weapon or wait for the other guy to be looking away. Then they cannot sustain the initial advantage because their prep wasn't finished and the good guys get those critical moments to close the breach. It is probably because of bad intel, with aides too afraid to tell the truth and the bad guy is puffed up with their own invincibility. Saddam entering Kuwait without his nuke, Little Kim popping his test before he had a viable delivery system, Kerry almost undoing the RAT election strategerie [how wide the margin of victory if he kept quiet?]

That said, can the Iranians wait long enough for the RATs to work their magic in Congress before making a move in Iraq that reawakens our sleeping giant? Or a RAT opens his mouth a little too soon and the silent majority has time to scream. That is the only way out: someone makes a mistake. Let's hope history repeats itself.

64 posted on 11/08/2006 4:52:16 PM PST by NonValueAdded (Prayers for our patriot brother, 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub. Brian, we're all pulling for you!)
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To: NonValueAdded
Well, amen to that. And you're right. We saw that Hitler attacked Russia way too early. Dunno about the Dems, though. They are in full sail, convinced they've won their "war" on our war, and convinced they can now dictate to Bush. And his "new tone" for six years suggests they can.

Today it was Rummy. Tomorrow it's Bolton. Then they'll line Cheney up in their sights.

65 posted on 11/08/2006 4:55:10 PM PST by LS
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To: nosofar

The tribe has spoken.
.....................

if the Iraqi parliment is disfunctional now,
ie. can't make basic decisions, about sharing oil,etc,,,

big changes are needed


66 posted on 11/08/2006 4:59:15 PM PST by greasepaint
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To: PzLdr
Goes back quite ways too, at least to the Bay of Pigs under JFK. There just seems to be something about the US that is unable to follow through on a commitment to help another country overthrow tyranny.
67 posted on 11/08/2006 5:04:32 PM PST by jwparkerjr
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To: nosofar
The fate that will befall all those millions of courageous Iraqis, showing the dye on their fingers after they had voted -- in defiance of all the terror threats -- will not come as a surprise to me, either. They are being sold out, as the Vietnamese were before them. But the consequences of abandoning Iraq will come home to the United States and the West, in a way Vietnam never touched us.

Naw, we will screw them too. I still see the choppers lifting off the roof in Nam in 75 in my dreams. Tomorrow night I think it is the discovery or history channel will have on the Tet Offensive program. Once again our troops will kick ass and take names later. We will win that battle with big losses, but the NVA and VC lost thousands and thousands and we kicked their asses. Then we lost the war in the press thanks to the likes of Uncle Walter and Dan Blather and the leftist press.

I left my blood on the ground in Vietnam. It soaked into the earth there. I was in a hospital for 6 months and another year walking again. But the stinking US Congress withheld funding for the war and we withdrew. That is all the dims will have to do now, withhold funding and force the troops to be withdrawn. Then the civil war in Iraq starts and millions die. No, once again, we will waste our best, young and brave, who gave their lives for a country that voted yesterday to NOT GIVE A DAMN. I am sick to my stomach over this. I have seen it before, and now I have to relive it again. Damn it, I am mad.

68 posted on 11/08/2006 5:05:15 PM PST by RetiredArmy (Pray for the military. They are stuck in the middle.)
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To: BeHoldAPaleHorse

Unfortunately the rest of us will be reaping right along with them.


69 posted on 11/08/2006 5:05:53 PM PST by kas2591 (Life's harder when you're stupid.)
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To: Frank Sheed

Thanks, I needed that. Airborne!


70 posted on 11/08/2006 5:05:58 PM PST by sgtyork (Prove to us that you can enforce the borders first.)
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To: RetiredArmy

I am with you.

I was a cop after I got back from 'Nam--got shot in 1975, shortly before the end.

I was in the ICU when I learned about Saigon falling.

I damn near gave up and died right there.

Maybe I should have--because I wouldn't have to see this again, and I wouldn't have been able to talk my son and nieces/nephews into enlisting on 9/11.


71 posted on 11/08/2006 5:08:31 PM PST by BeHoldAPaleHorse (I dare call it treason.)
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To: BeHoldAPaleHorse

Good health to you my Nam brother. I know exactly how you feel. Exactly.


72 posted on 11/08/2006 5:15:59 PM PST by RetiredArmy (Pray for the military. They are stuck in the middle.)
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To: RetiredArmy
"I still see the choppers lifting off the roof in Nam in 75 in my dreams."......"I left my blood on the ground in Vietnam. It soaked into the earth there."

Thank you and God bless you.

73 posted on 11/08/2006 5:18:17 PM PST by Sam's Army
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To: pabianice
"Truly depressing. It will be up to us to fight in our own yards."

I suddenly realise that we in europe will be first in line!
74 posted on 11/08/2006 5:19:55 PM PST by ch.man
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To: nosofar
Maybe the author needs to reconsider his line of thinking.

If Iraq is such a precarious sh!t-hole that "abandoning it" will have devastating consequences for the U.S., then it would be grossly irresponsible to leave anything left standing there -- and anyone alive -- after we leave.

75 posted on 11/08/2006 5:23:05 PM PST by Alberta's Child (Can money pay for all the days I lived awake but half asleep?)
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To: LS
Do you seriously think these people will for one second hew to any "conservative" principles when Fraulein Pelosi reads them the Nazi Party Bylaws upon their being sworn in?

I think I expressed my expectation in the original post.

For now, I'm taking them at their word -- a dangerous approach whenever a Democrat is speaking, I know. My expectations, however, are that they are either a.) liars or b.) due to be subsumed in the fiery furnace of the Democrat House caucus.

I'm prepared for a surprise...but expect disappointment.

76 posted on 11/08/2006 5:24:20 PM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Sam's Army
Thanks Sam. I truly wish I could say that it was worth it. But, I cannot. I only see 58,000 wasted souls. I lost a second cousin there and a high school mate. I live in an apartment here and less than 1/2 mile down the road is the very cemetery where my cousin is buried. His grave is marked with flowers and a flag on it. I cannot drive by going that direction without looking out across that cemetery and catching the flag waving in the breeze over his grave. He has been gone 40 years. He was unmarried. No children. He basically gave his life for nothing. Thanks to a democrat congress.
77 posted on 11/08/2006 5:25:04 PM PST by RetiredArmy (Pray for the military. They are stuck in the middle.)
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To: nosofar

It is too late for the US to "sell out" Iraq. The US military busted hump to insure that the Iraqi military and police have de facto control over the entire country.

BECAUSE THEY ASSUMED THAT SOMETHING WOULD GO WRONG, AND IRAQ WOULD BE ABANDONED, JUST LIKE VIETNAM.

The worst that can happen now are sectarian troubles, which may have been inevitable, anyway. But their outcome is certain if they happen: the Sunnis will lose.

The other alternative is that Iran will invade. But all Iraq needs is an air force, tanks and artillery, and their military is so vastly superior to Iran's that they will kick seven bells out of them.

There is a good chance that we have been quietly training their combat pilots, who can take their planes home with them and "instant air force"; and all the other hardware, such as tanks, tracks, and tubes, we are planning to leave behind anyway.

But how can this be? Unlike the rest of the Middle East, where the largest coherent military unit is the brigade (5000 men), Iraq now has 10 divisions (15-25,000 each), trained in division operations, and organized by a Corps command staff.

To put it bluntly, five brigades under effective divisional command and control can beat fifteen brigades acting independently. It is that much of a force multiplier.

10 Divisions under a unified Corps command makes the Iraqi army potent enough to take on Iran's 14 divisions three times over.

Yes, the US military has worked off the assumption that sooner or later they, and the Iraqis, would be betrayed, and the Iraqis would be left to their own devices. So they did everything in their power to insure that nobody, but nobody, is going to take Iraq down.

They fought and died to make Iraq free. They're not about to sit around and watch cowardly creeps and traitors destroy what has cost so very much to build.

And when Iraq survives as a free and democratic nation, its existence will be a continual reminder as to how wrong the democrats really were, just as eastern Europe is testament to how wrong democrats really were.


78 posted on 11/08/2006 5:25:24 PM PST by Popocatapetl
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To: BeHoldAPaleHorse

after finding out that all three of our (former) children voted for Webb, I told my husband ... well, WE won't be around for the consequences of their votes, we'll be long dead. THEY will have to live with it ... I can imagine now my future granddaughter going to school in a jihab.


79 posted on 11/08/2006 5:30:10 PM PST by EDINVA
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To: Ramius

According to the exit polling data, the top concern of voters was corruption. Iraq came in a distant third.


80 posted on 11/08/2006 5:31:48 PM PST by SoCal Pubbie
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