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."
But those of us who have kids and other family in the military, who KNOW how noble and just the mission in Iraq is, have a harder time dealing with this than other issues.
With Miers, Schiavo, even the border, their angry rants could be somewhat ignored, but when it involves Iraq it cuts much deeper.
I'm not sure how interested I am in 'outlasting' these people any more.......
"I agree that discussion is a good thing. I just don't think this thread was written to facilitate discussion. Even the title is written as a insult."
Judging from the amount of activity on this thread, it most certainly facilitates discussion. Personally, I find the title refreshing, not at all insulting.
Freepers were generally on the same side-life-for Schiavo. That's not the point. Myers was the worst IMHO, and a lot of Bush supporters here were, for the first time, questioning his mindset. Support has further eroded since that time for President Bush. Maybe your experience is different.
OK, I am so stealing that one.
FLEEpers.
I like it.
dont worry Newt will take care of it all
I agree with your sentiments except about the author.
He acted a total ass in Crawford last year and that has tainted
any wisdom he might put forth ever since.
GO TROOPS!
It was a utopian regional strategy. Take out Saddam, create a democracy in its place, which will become a City on the Hill to all the Middle East, and democracy sweeps across the region. The only flaw with the plan: Muslims are not capable of making democracy work.
now wait a minute ; when Lugar is quoted as saying that Bush is changing his tune with regard to NK, when it is actually Lugar who has said diametrically opposite things, and you tell me that I "may choose to call it a lie," it leads me to believe you have not developed any kind of skepticism at all to the leadings of the press , which really wants one thing--US defeat and withdrawal. Lugar pretty well proved with his MTP comments that Bush would be unwise to trust him with any of his intentions, so why would I believe that Lugar has any knowledge that Bush intends to sit down with Iran or Syria? This especially since the assassination of Gemayel?
I have watched Lugar for a long time...he is basically a GOP mouthpiece for Joe Biden...I don't trust him very much.
But even if you tried, you could not find them, because they do not exist. Your perception is a fabrication of your unethical imagination and your liberal situation ethics.
This is over, Blackbird. You offend my conservative ethics with every post you write to me.
Just stop lying about me, and don't post to me. I don't care what you think of me, but I don't want you lying about me on a public forum again.
"Rumors of yesterday's atrocities included one report of six Sunni men who emerged from services at a Baghdad mosque and were doused with kerosene and burned alive. But two Baghdad imams, in an interview, denied that the incident took place."
As I said, the issue at hand is dealing with a perceived incipient, and perhaps now not so incipient, civil war. I suspect a major change of course may well be near at hand, probably towards some de facto quasi partition. If it happens, it will happen rather quickly, if the Iraqi forces start dissolving de jure into sectarian factions.
I hope it does happen, I wish it does not happen, and if it does happen, it will be a tragedy. Bush's long pass towards remaking the middle east for the better will be recorded by history has an interception.
Gee, I dunno. Maybe because Lugar is the chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee? The Chief Executive can not really do squat in regards to foreign relations without legislative review, BTW.
I disagree...I have listened to all of President Bush's speeches...and I have read a lot of analyse's of the Bush Doctrine.
I DO believe he understands the enemy...and what this WAR will entail..and he has warned us repeatedly that this is not going to be easy or short.
However, he is working with a State Dept...and a MEDIA and Congresspeople that have openly fought him from the get go.
I think you were pretty dismissive of both he and Rummy in an unfair way...but, that is your opinion, and you are entitled to that.
I haven't seen any posts that have even ventured a guess that perhaps the reason we HAVEN'T been hit again, is because President Bush understands the enemy, and it doing a lot of things that unfortunately the media and the Dems and the agencies would rather LEAK...than give Bush credit for.
Cheerleading has turned into a sport in its own right. But I remember a time when cheerleading was only a side show to the main event.
At at the main event, the winning objective was obvious and the winning team was certain.
What is the objective today in Iraq?
How will we know that the US has won?
Can anyone currently imagine any scenario where the place doesn't go to Hell- even worse then now- when the US pulls out? Or does the US stay there forever? Bleeding day after day.
No one argues that the troops are top notch and would win whatever ordered. It is why may of us are upset that Rumsfeld was fired. What is happening in Iraq is not the fault of the military.
The insurgency is not small because the pipeline- for political reasons- hasn't been closed. As long as Iran and Syria and others are not taken care off, the "insurgency" will flow in perpetuity. Are Iran and Syria going to be taken on?
You are in for a severe disappointment. The Bush Administration is going to lean on the coming report prepared by appeaser James Baker and developed by such military geniuses as Sandra O'Conner and Leon Peneta.
All logic points to this Administration "cutting and running" in one way or another. With Iraq falling to Iranian influence. The only question is, how many Americans have to die in Iraq while that occurs.
I supported that war too. With fear. And all my fears have materialized.
I hope I'm wrong. And I hope I'm not too hated here for writing the truth as I see it happening.
I understand. This WAS a great site and still has some FINE ones on it. The composite, however, has become increasingly problematic for you and others like you. Sorry.
I don't doubt that.
The de-Baathification strategy seems not to have worked very well, and it seems it would've been better to establish security before trying to establish democracy (and might still) but again, perhaps that's 20/20 hindsight.
thanks for 1092. the little icing of the cake that "Iraqi security forces stood by doing nothing" shows how hard some propagandists are working and how little editorial filtering is going on
Allegra...you know the freeper that came up with that name...Teufelhunde!!! Figures, huh??
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