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."
Every post. Read your own words. Cut&Run! Blackbird.
Are you saying that kristinn "acted a total ass in Crawford.."??
Go Allegra....and thanks for being there
I heard the report on the radio, and did a google, when a poster asked if the report was true. Most articles, including ABC and USA Today, do not report the imam denial of the human torchings. So we don't know whether it happened or not.
just one quibble-- it may be that Lugar is trying to shape the agenda, yuhno?
Yeppers...that IS 20/20 hindsight, and not only unproductive...but it so makes our enemies happy to keep reading these 20/20 hindsight remarks.
What is the Sabramerican US Iraq policy going forward, in some detail if you would care to? I am the kind of guy that does not waste too much time on sunk costs. Every day is a new day, and one must deal with what is on one's plate at the moment.
Uh-oh...
Just to back YOU up that conservatives like us - but who have respected and supported the President in the good he has done - aren't that far from Bb in actual fact despite his constant attacks on us and calling us Liberals:
On a thread that was started in order to promote Duncan Hunter for President, I saw that BB had endorsed Hunter for '08 just a few posts away from where I, txrangerette, your friend, endorsed Hunter as well.
Bizarre, but most illustrative of your point all along.
On some threads, I find myself wondering if I accidentally took a left turn on the information highway and wandered into DU.
Hey Blackbird,
Thanks for that link. I'll read it through and write back.
The vet I referenced writes for an aviation magazine, which is how I know him. He also said that the "insurgents" were terrified of the Marines when he was there the last time.
I don't claim to be an expert, not by a long shot. But it bugs me terribly when I hear things on the news that should not be broadcast, like troop movements and numbers, secret programs and interrogation tactics. It seems to me that any timetable for withdrawal, while it may mollify the politicians, is mostly a message to the enemy about how long they need to wait it all out.
Thanks...
How many FREEPERS would be FLEEPERS today if it were Newt who was President and not Bush
I've seen posts on here that look like they were pulled straight from DU too.
Of course you know that you are now marked as a traitor to our nation by the Bush worshipers whose thinking is not guided by truths but by Bush cult doctrine.
this is the great underappreciated venue for leftist propaganda, and I believe the most effective, as it is probably where most people get more of their news than anywhere else (drive-time, top of the hour headlines). Can you believe the day Milton Friedman died the radio headline was " the guru of Reaganomics and author of trickle-down economics" and NO mention of NOBEL PRIZE WINNER.
Well said!
"I was patient with the "turn it all into a glass parking lotters" after 911..It was a very emotional time"
Yes it was. The thing is adults are supposed to control their emotions and think things through. Evidently there are a number of Freepers who have never grown up, they're still reacting like 7 year olds. I wonder if they realise the harm they do with their talk of nuking this carpet bombing that....etc?
"Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy."
Aristotle
If you mean histrionics, name-calling, and a pathological adherence to bad policies, then I agree with you.
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