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."
One can find the mission misguided without *bashing* the troops who are honorably carrying it out.
If at the end of the day..the Iraqis decide to partiton their country...hey, they can.
I do NOT think we should have anything to do with "imposing" a 3 state solution however.
Well leave already, or stay, just quit the dramatic whining and make up your mind.
Dunno, altura, but both came from the mindset of Hollywood...fabricated from thin air.
I don't know what you are implying.
The Great Society was a notorious failure. Maybe it was noble in its concept, but, like most attempts at socialism, no democrats were able to think far enough ahead to see the unexpected consequences. LBJ was such an odd man, I cannot even pretend to figure out his true motives.
Establishing a democracy in Iraq would be a good thing, and, unlike the great society, there was no particular political benefit to Bush in advancing this cause.
On the contrary, he knew it would be difficult and difficult to explain to people and probably cause his popularity to suffer.
So, your point is???????
Great tagline!
I'm glad for brave souls like you, Ohio, TX, Miss Marple and others.
But I can't do it without serious injury to my fragile mental health (ha).
When the 20/20 hindsight remarks are negative and don't lend themselves to what to do from here forward...all it does is let the enemy know that the American people are more intent on complaining...
The enemy then figures all it has to do is wait us out...that eventually the complainers will get power...and BINGO...they did.
Now, they are trying to make it as bloody as possible...to make sure the Dems do exactly what they are doing...pushing for a quick pull out....
Complaining about mistakes from 3 years ago is such a useless thing to do...
Really? Because I recall something about a "slam dunk" war, after which the Great Liberation Army would be greeted by cheering mobs of flower-tossing Iraqis.
I'm not aware that I have constantly attacked you tx. Frankly, I don't recall ever posting to you. I could be wrong. Maybe you feel like collateral damage?
Somehow, and maybe it's just me, I can't see the conservative nature in using the GOTV effort to:
1st, campaign for a Conservative, and 2nd, in the next breath campaign for a RINO, and proclaim that both deserve your support and Vote. There is something wrong with that picture. Vote R for R's sake? That didn't work out so well, and the GOTV effort must have been absolutely laughable in front of anyone with two brain cells to rub together. I'm coming up on 30 years of doing this, and I have seen and heard quite a bit, but I think I would pay good money to see the ramblings of which I commented above. The look on Joe Sixpack's face would have to be priceless. This is the claim to fame for ohioWfan. Blackbird.
The enemy then figures all it has to do is wait us out...that eventually the complainers will get power...and BINGO...they did.
Now, they are trying to make it as bloody as possible...to make sure the Dems do exactly what they are doing...pushing for a quick pull out....
Complaining about mistakes from 3 years ago is such a useless thing to do...
How true...and they are doing exactly that...we must be so predictable to them....the American people have no stamina.
Wow..you really have those DU talking points down, don't you?
If this were anything resembling a failure, you would not see the commitment you see here.
Our biggest disappointment is how duped people back home seem to have become. (Present company excluded, of course.)
You might like to post where you read that.
You certainly never heard it from the lips of our President.
As I said before, it was and could have been a slam dunk war. It's been over for years.
What we're doing now is attempting a peace-keeping operation in order to allow a democracy to form in Iraq, and we're trying to do that without undue harm to the population.
Population, by the way, who more or less look alike, wear no uniforms, and there is no way to tell who is off in a cave making IED's and who's just wanting peace and minding his own business.
Establishing a democracy in Iraq would be a good thing
I disagree. Democracy is worth nothing without liberty and justice. We can see that after the resounding "democratic" victory of Hamas and dare I say the democratic victory of Maliki/Sadr's fundamentalist Shi'ite coalition in Iraq. Give me liberty and justice any day over rule by the tyranny of numbers.
Thank you Allegra.
If they would have watched John Abizaid's testimony on the Hill a few weeks ago...they would have heard him say that the despair is in Washington...not in Iraq.
Sorry...meant to include you on #1154. (I should be hitting the hay now and I'm being a night-owl again....)
So go back and read...I think I suggested - but didn't flat out say - that it might be better to not worry about the Iraqi government at this point. Establish security first, then try again for democracy, if we want.
I don't know that my suggestions would carry any weight with those who'd need to implement them in any case.
What sort of comments, other than "Stay the course" do you deem acceptable?
Administration spin <> DU talking points.
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