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."
Some of the dispair seems to be right here. I never thought I'd read the posts that are appearing on FR. Maybe DU, but not FR.
I also remember seeing video from Iraq, right after we took Baghdad, where there were Iraqis cheering our troops...and they were tearing down Saddam statues...
Yes...they were greeted by MANY Iraqis as liberators...I guess it wasn't ENOUGH for the DUers.
Same as it always was. A free Iraq with a democraticly elected government.
How will we know that the US has won?
When they have their 1800 election. (John Adams lost to Thomas Jefferson, and turned over the presidentcy to his arch rival..but you knew that)
Can anyone currently imagine any scenario where the place doesn't go to Hell- even worse then now
Yes. (Why is it so many here ALWAYS see the glass as 1/2 full? Why is it so many here can never see the forest for the tree?) Maybe it's always been that way. I recall reading in the civil war the newspapers of the day would either declare victory was at hand or all was lost depending on weather or not a battle had been won or lost.
The leaders (Sunnie, Shia, Kurds) set aside their short term battles send a message to the world that they stand as IRAQI's and will not stand by and watch their country fall apart.
This will happen, as they know they if they do not hang together they will hang apart. Enlightened self-interest will in the end save the day.
Remember 4 years ago there was no freely elected goverment in Iraq. This is a country that has been gangbanged for the last 30-40 years, and has no history of self government, given this they are doing pretty good.
#958
Good post.
Do you even *remember* the administration's pre-war publicity push?
The term "greeted as liberators" is no DU spin. It's administration spin, and you know it.
But that would insinuate that President Bush does not wield total power and authority in making every single decision relating to Iraq, Iran, and Syria. The huge problem that I have is that nobody is questioning the wisdom and implications of negotiating with Iran and Syria (which constitute Shiite Hezbullah). Mookie will ascend to power, and the US Foreign Relations policy will back him.
Tex, I pinged you because I can not find any domestic reporting on the Lugar statement today.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-235/0611255020155942.htm
Would that the Great Society had failed. It's still haunting us in so many ways.
I don't know if a democracy in the sense that you want is possible in Iraq. I certainly don't understand the Muslim mindset. Bush believes in the basic goodness of most people, but I think that religion is a detriment to that goodness.
But, remember, we thought the Japanese were savages and could never have any form of democracy. Well, they have a form of it...not a form we particularly admire, but they have one.
So, maybe our President is just more farsighted than the rest of us, and maybe he is lucky enough to see the Angel in the Whirlwind while we are all grabbing for the televisions that blew away.
I'm not making up my mind until the dopes leave.
No. I do not KNOW IT and neither do you!
Tell them you support them, but that what they're doing is 'misguided.'
Go ahead. Do it.
Thanks again for all you are doing
I would disagree with it; I have a "Hearsay quality" memory of somebody having reported that Bush rejected it. The people pushing it are the "realists" like Baker, or so I understand. That would fit with Lugar promoting it.
Do NOT read this thread, mystery.
Thank God he locked our borders down tight on 9-12-o2, otherwise, I'd be worried that our country isn't safe.
We are involved in a thousand year struggle against the evils of Islam, and in a struggle since the beginning of time against evil in its varied forms.
Our time here on this Earth is limited, as I suspect you're old enough to have noticed by now.
Each day allotted to us we should do what we can, within the special abilities and energies we each have, to further the good and fight the evil.
When I see a young man go by in uniform, I am reminded of your good son. Thank you, and thanks to your son.
The worst fighting in Iraq, according to one map I saw, was along the borders with Iran and Syria, and in one suburb of Baghdad. The enemy is working hard to wear us down. Each one of us who can continue to stand for what's good, for another day, is one more little victory.
If you read all of my posts...not just to you, you will see that I post about possibilities...and my opinion.
Like the partitioning of the country...I don't think it is our place to do it...but, if that is the outcome down the road...that is their choice.
I don't mind discussing different tactics at all..I enjoy it..and even what could be done in the future...it is this looking back stuff that gets me.
Plus, I definitely am on the side that says that the overall strategy(goal) needs to stay what President Bush said it is.
But, day to day tactics HAVE to change according to what is happening on the ground over there...as well as other events in that area of the world.
Lebanon is at a very critical place right now...and could influence what happens in the long run...so we need to follow events there...also.
I did hear one Middle Eastern expert say on Fox News today that even though Iran and Syria would not/should not be involved in helping out in Iraq...they do NOT want millions of refugees streaming over their borders ...
And, he said that Iran and Syria do know that would happen if the USA were to pull out any time soon....so they really do NOT want us to leave, no matter what their rhetoric is.
* March 16, Vice President Cheney, on NBC's Meet the Press: "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . (in) weeks rather than months." He predicted that regular Iraqi soldiers would not "put up such a struggle" and that even "significant elements of the Republican Guard . . . are likely to step aside."
http://www.usatoday.com/educate/war28-article.htm
bttt
I would rather you talk about what you think..rather than post in "sound bites"..
Thank you. I was going to google, but I decided that nobody is listening---so why bother.
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