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."
And you pound your keyboard making fun of people who actually ARE conservatives.
It's not that hard to figure out.
You're not a conservative. I am. That makes you mad.
I know...I was lurking and reading this thread all last night...and couldn't post...it just made me sad.
But, today, I just decided to jump in...for a while.
it'll be trite and oh,so discredited to mention the Kurds
Ohio, I feel your pain.
Ooops, sorry. That reminds me of someone.
Don't despair. We've gone through this before. All would be different if the dems hadn't taken the house and the senate. There are a lot of people here who are lacking courage in the face of losing. It's sad.
But, remember, when Dr.Deb decided to leave? I can't remember which huge divisive controversy that was even.
But, she stayed and, although I don't think she posts much on threads like this, she is a great treasure on the Day in the Life thread, providing us with all sorts of information and links.
This too will pass.
But if you don't want to hang around and fight with idiots, who can blame you? Just don't leave us DILifers.
Yes indeed.
I was there and it was embarrassing.
My buddy Flyer had the pictures but unfortunaltely he is dead now.
A Northerner prancing about with a clipboard presuming to give orders to Texans isn't taken well here.
actually, it would be irrelevant---since quote was regarding the Iraqi population at large.
The Kurds haven't murdered thousands of our men and women.
The initial mission was honorable, and absolutely the correct thing to do.
But the fighting seems to have morphed into an inter-religious rivalry hatred rather than a jihad against the West.
Yes, the USA still has a vital interest in seeing Iraq become a stabilized 'modern' nation, but seeing our good brave US soldiers and Marines getting killed while separating two nutball groups is something that the American public sees as very distasteful.
hey, he got half of it exactly right,thanks for posting the unremembered half ( must have hurt you to have to do it, but it shows some integrity at least)
Top US senator urges Tehran-Washington talks over Mideast situation Berlin
Nov 25, IRNA
Germany-US-Iran
The powerful chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar on Saturday called for direct talks between Washington, Tehran and Damascus over the latest developments in the Middle East.
"I am among those who advocates talks between our government, Damascus and Tehran after a certain point," Lugar said in an interview with the Berlin-based Der Tagesspiegel.
The Republican senator from the US state of Indiana added that American President George W. Bush had gradually abandoned his earlier unilateral foreign policies for an increasingly multilateral approach, citing US-European cooperation on the question of Iran as well Washington's support for the six-party talks with North Korea.
Lugar has repeatedly said direct talks between Iran and the US would be "useful".
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-16/0611255020155942.htm
Yeah, that was Clinton's exit strategy, too. So, can you explain what Bush meant, then???
Distasteful?
Odd choice of words.
But, I suspect that, like the dems, you don't know what to do either.
I am trusting that the President, the generals and others in the administration will figure out how to handle this better.
everybody knew the Baathists weren't going to greet us as liberators. Is that irrelevant too?
And here I was waiting for D@mned Yankee #sshat. You feelin' OK today?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Did he step on your cowboy boots with his sissy boy sandals?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Of course it is, unless you are claiming that the sunni insurgents, the shia death squads, and Madr militia, and "al-Qaida in Iraq" (non of whom existed until we invaded) are ALL Baathists.
On the other hand, I don't think they want us to win any great victory either - because if we did, their people might want democracy too, and we might be inclined to push a bit harder for regime change in those places.
I think they are happy to keep fomenting the insurgency right now.
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