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."
I will wait and see if those hostile to the mission in Iraq remain in the majority. If they do, then the problems will overcome the good.
But I will never forget the support I got on this forum when my son was deployed. I am just sorry that those who have loved ones in Iraq now may not have a majority of freepers who support them. It will be a great loss, and IMO, may lead to the diminishment of this forum as a political force.
Basically, we won the Iraq war and won it easily.
If Bush were the cowboy tyrant that some of his detractors accuse him of being, we could easily have installed a benevolent dictator friendly to the U.S. and ruthlessly destroyed any enemies to that regime.
Bush's dream was to establish a democracy in the center of the MidEast; maybe not a U.S. democracy (he certainly wouldn't wish Teddy, Cary, Pelosi et al on anyone) but a democracy nevertheless.
That's the thing that's made this whole Iraq situation messy.
The Prez may not be able to realize the dream, but it is a noble one.
It's hard to say this without sounding heartless to the dear and brave people we have lost over there, but, really, it's been a relatively safe war for our troups. Parts of LA would be more dangerous for young men.
The unlikely and untenable position is to "expend" the war to Syria and Iran. Won't happen.
Best of the worst, is to let the Arabs bleed themselves to exhaustion and retreat to support our only allies in the mess, the Kurds.
At the end of the mess, at least at the end of the fighting, there will be a de facto if not a de jure partition.
Whether or not it makes them happy might depend on our response to deciding we've made a mistake.
However, if you can read the enemy's minds, maybe you ought to be up there helping the government formulate a new strategy. ;-)
Basically, I'm now avoiding all those threads.
I just read the interesting, informative stuff that's not about politics and I read the Day in the Life thread, where negativism is not tolerated.
It's rare for me to even jump onto a thread like this and I certainly haven't read but the last 2 pages.
You Bush worshipper, you. (See post, upthread, accusing every Bush supporter of Bush cultism and Bush worship). What you say can't possibly be true. /sarcasm
good AND SAD post ohio
You cannot prove your false attacks on me, so you cover it with bluff and false bravado.
If you would just be a man and admit you are wrong, all would be well.
You are a conservative in part, and I am a conservative in whole, and that is the source of your problem with me.
All you have to do is develop some ethics, Bird. Maybe not easy, but possible. Get rid of the liberal junk that infests your brain and start from scratch with truth at the center.
Go ahead. Give it a try. And in a few years when you've become more conservative, let me know.
Until then, fly away, please??
Keep your enemies close guys, let them post all they want imo.
I beg your pardon...I have posted to cva66snipe a couple of times...and, even though I am backing up President Bush, I haven't called him a traitor or close to it....
Posting stuff like that just makes problems between freepers, not debate.
Apologists for LBJ said essentially the same thing to rationalize the failure of the Great Society.
My advice is don't muck up a good peaceful evening reading this thread! It's as depressing as I have seen in...well...a few hours. LOL. Guaranteed to raise the blood pressure. Grrrr.
The Cult of Bush??
Is that any kind to the Wrath of Khan?
As I said, other issues might pass, but when the majority of freepers are bashing the mission of our troops, there may be no hope for this place....
I take breaks from them. But I feel it incumbent on me to keep trying to push the truth. I'm in a position to do that and can't shirk the duty.
If I convince one person just once in a while, I feel like I've accomplished something (how ever little it is.)
I just returned home...over 1100 posts to this thread...I dare not read them......I think I'll stick with the Dose for support, I can count on them..
Wow. A little vitriol this evening. Nice.
Thanks for the post.
Bush's "dream" isn't because he is a pie in sky dreamer, either....he sees it as a necessity to keep America safe in the future.
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