Posted on 11/24/2006 6:46:08 PM PST by kristinn
I'm reading an astonishing number of comments on Free Republic these days by posters who have joined the ranks of the anti-American left in calling for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Some claim to have military experience, some claim to be patriotic Americans and some claim to be smarter than the rest.
These posters are joining the Murtha-Rangel-McDermott treason caucus. Oh, they say they love the troops, but their decision to abandon them in the field speaks otherwise.
Three years ago, the United States led an international coalition to rid the world of one of the worst regimes on the planet. Saddam Hussein was an international terrorist: He financed terrorism, he trained terrorists and he harbored terrorists. He waged war on Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Israel. He waged war on the people of Iraq, including genocidal campaigns against the Kurds in the north and the marsh Arabs in the south.
Saddam successfully subverted the Oil-for-Food program and was wearing down support for continuing the sanctions keeping him in check.
He had numerous contacts with al Qaeda over the years. He tried to assassinate a former U.S. president. He maintained research capabilities to implement nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as soon as the sanctions were lifted. There is evidence that some of these programs would have been operational within a year even with the sanctions in place.
The decision to remove Saddam and his regime as part of the Global War on Terror was correct.
Three-and-a-half years after Iraq and the world were liberated from Saddam and his terrorist regime, there are those on Free Republic who are clamoring to give up, surrender, cut and run, stab the troops in the back, betray the Iraqis, betray our allies in the GWOT, spit on the graves of our fallen heroes and join Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin and Ramsey Clark in bringing about America's defeat in the GWOT.
It's only been three-and-a-half years--only six months since the freely elected government in Iraq was formed. In that time, what has been called a mini-Marshall Plan of construction and reconstruction has come to fruition. The Iraqis have held three national elections, they have held numerous local elections, fourteen out of eighteen Iraq provinces are relatively peaceful and stable.
Six months ago, when the Iraqi government was formed, the experts said the war would be taken to Baghdad because our enemies in the region could not abide the example of a free, democratic society in the Middle East. For once, the experts were right. The battle of Baghdad has been a prolonged Tet Offensive style operation of headline-grabbing attacks intended to sap the morale of Americans and Iraqis alike.
From what I've been reading on Free Republic lately, a lot of Freepers have fallen for the enemy's ploy and are howling like barking moonbats for our immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Some of that talk is couched in talk of 'we're fighting a PC war like Vietnam!' The soldiers I met in Iraq recently told Debra Argel Bastian to pass on a message to the Vietnam vets criticizing the war: With all due respect to your service, this is not Vietnam. It is not being fought like Vietnam. Please let us finish our mission.
But our enemy is playing the Vietnam ploy to great benefit. They know they can count on the American and world media to broadcast their propaganda. They work with leftist Americans to sabotage the war effort at home. They know these leftist Americans have allies in the Democratic party. They know they do not need a military victory--only political and psychological victories are needed to defeat America.
You guys are playing right in to their hands. Congratulations.
There are those who argue that murder and dictatorship is the mindset of the Middle East and that will not be changed by our actions. Funny how those who smugly denigrate the Arab peoples' capacity for freedom forget the wholesale slaughter of millions of Westerners by Westerners at the hands of Western dictatorships just a few generations past.
I hear complaints that the Iraqis aren't standing up. Yet, to use one common example, when police recruits are slaughtered in bombings, Iraqis line up the next day at the same recruiting center. The insurgency is small in number, but they are able to do enough damage on a daily basis to stretch out the time it will take to secure the whole of Iraq.
At this time of our testing, the American people are starting to go wobbly. Sadly, many Freepers are too. Our troops and their Commander-in-Chief are not, thank God. It's only been three-and-a-half years. The progress made has been phenomonal. Throw in the towel now, and you'll just have the terrorists follow us home. Everyone knows that, including you. I'm not willing to pay that price, not now, not ever, but you are.
Let me close by offering similar sentiments recently offered by two men 'in the know' on the situation in Iraq who are not giving up. First, Kurdish Regional Government Prime Minister Barzani: "When I was in the United States recently and read the negative news in the Washington Post, New York Times and in the network TV broadcasts, I even wondered if things had gotten so bad since I had left that I shouldn't return."
Next, Gen. Abizaid: "When I come to Washington, I feel despair. When I'm in Iraq with my commanders, when I talk to our soldiers, when I talk to the Iraqi leadership, they are not despairing."
Please do!!!
Thanks for your post. Some people refuse to look at different angles of the current situation right now in Iraq, and then use ad hominem attacks against those that see things differently. Have you noticed the word "quaqmire" hasn't been used to describe Iraq? It's because everyone now recognizes the fact that the war is a quaqmire. Now we're (meaning our government) talking about sucking up to Iran and Syria to help us with Iraq, reaching out to the mouths that repeatedly bite at us?
The issue of concern at the moment is not so much the numbers of Iraqi police and soldiers, it is not even so much their effectiveness; rather it is whether or not they are taking sectarian sides in the perceived Shia-Sunni melee, as opposed to going after the perps on an even handed basis as and when presented to them. The issue is whether these recruits are, or are not, in substantial measure, fire power in waiting for a portending civil war.
That in my mind is where the rubber meets the road as to the locus of the current crisis of confidence, and pessimism about prospects going forward, in Iraq.
Sorry-that's quaqmire.
Roxybear, I'm sure you're a nice person, but when it comes to Iraq you're a real dope.
Okay?
It was never the plan to remove a dictator and then to leave kaos.
LOSERTARIANS; SANFRANCISCOVALUES; cutandruncinos, cinobackstabbers
Yes, you got me there. You've been polluting this place 6 whole months more than I. So much to my demise, you got me. So, once again, don't answer the question put to you, dodge, weave, bob, run from the room screaming like a ten year old girl, (no offense to ten year old girls), but DON'T answer the question. You don't have the credentials to question my credibility. You are totally consumed by your emotions, totally. Blackbird.
Quagmire. Good golly.
It's a pretty costly thing to start a war and find out you were wrong.
Bush didn't go into Iraq because of WMD. He went there because of Saddam's support of terrorism and his connections to Al Qaeda. The only part WMD played was to determine that we should take him out sooner rather than wait until he had the bomb. Bush had made speeches on this prior to the war. He said it's better to go in now instead of waiting until he already has WMD which could empower him to change the geopolitics of the ME.
So you believe that the Armed Services Committee has absolutely zero input on this? Our elected representatives in the Senate and the House are just too ignorant to deal with such complex things as goals and objectives, while the Chief Executive makes all of these strategic and tactical plans in a total vacuum? Sorry, that just sounds delusional.
296 posted on 11/24/2006 5:23:24 PM EST by varon (Allegiance to the constitution, always. Allegiance to a political party, never.)
Thanks, TexKat......already found one.
Mocking the job the troops have done (with great effort and success) in training Iraqis for the military and police.
The failure of a few does not negate what our troops have done.
This comment was not objected to, and in fact was defended on the thread you linked.
So instead of fighting each other here about how to get it done, maybe we should be fighting the Left so we can get it done.
Cut N Run when the discussion turns to reasoned debate.
And how have you missed the evidence of WMD already uncovered?
The only reason that any American feels like he has been lied to, is that they have been lied to by the left and a complicit media.
You obviously have swallowed it. Nothing more to discuss with you.
I'm offended that you believe there is one way and one way only..and if you don't agree you are anti-American.
But for the record, I'm not consumed by anything but the desire for honesty in this debate, and support for our troops.
If my emotion in defense of our military disturbs you, I apologize.
Whoa, wait a minute. Now YOU'RE implying that he lied.
Seriously, though, the relevant terrorism ties were, at best, very tenuous, perhaps not even true.
We surely didn't send 150,000 troops into harm's way to stop Zarqawi?
I've been here for hours. It's time to leave.
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