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."
Those who are calling for us to get out now and saying the mission is worthless are being very loud about it.
It would be good to find out if they are just a small number making a lot noise, or they are truly the majority.
If they are, it is disturbing.
Lugar is an IDIOT.
"This is about core principles...If it is lost, this is no longer a conservative forum."
That's quite a statement coming from you. For the past 6 years we've witnessed the Bush Administration trash most conservative principles under the guise of maintaining electoral power. From outragous spending to CFR to free prescription drugs, many on this board, yourself included, has been at the forefront defending such actions.
For you to NOW claim that "core conservative principles" (how DOES debating about altering our operations in Iraq falls in that catagory???) are at stake is inappropriate. You and others have for quite some time been cheerleading their disposal.
That's a .... what's another word for 'stupid?' ... (okay, I can't think of any) question.
Yes, there are many civilians dying (excuse proper spelling..no offense). There are 40 one day, 7 one day, 10 the next.
But don't you even remember the numbers associated with those mass graves? That was genocide and in no way comparable to what's happening now.
So do I. *sigh*
"War is hell. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is the sooner it's over." -William T. Sherman.
Eaker, where is our thread on this and do you have the pix?
Your organizational skills are far greater than mine.
We should have aquired Flyer's files.
------------------------------------------------------
Name two.
Of course....Iran participates in war "by proxy"...they facilitate the others.
The Hezzies fighting in Lebanon for instance.
Kinda chicken "s" isn't it??
Yep, it was the start of Kerry's "sensitive war on terror."
watch that v for c transmutation, it's deadly. preCious boy i'm sure
hahaha...expect facts/names?
Thank you SO much for posting those.
I am always SO slayed by posters that want to drag up that dem talking point that "we weren't greeted as liberators".
They obviously haven't followed a LOT of threads here on FR if they believe that.
Where I think you go wrong is in believing that Shia, Sunni and Kurds, care about being Iraqis.
They are dumb according to jon carry...and now, according to charlie rangel they are not "normal"!
Well...don't they just really respect the troops?? /s
The term "greeted as liberators" is no DU spin. It's administration spin, and you know it.
Really?
Friday, November 14, 2003
THIS IS NOT A DREAM..
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2003/11/this-is-not-dream.html
Friday, November 07, 2003
بسÙ
اÙÙ٠اÙرØÙ
٠اÙرØÙÙ
(In the Name of God the Most Mercifull)
http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/2003_11_01_messopotamian_archive.html
Hi everybody,
We the Iraqis, find ourselves in the midst of a great turning point in human history. This is no dramatisation, no exaggeration. But if you make even a cursory perusal of the 6000 years or so history of Messopotamia, you will find that this, strangely, is the fate of this particular spot on the earth. Let us not get bogged in the confusing and painful details at this particular time and look at the essence of the matter.
Jolted and shocked by the events of September 11, the United States of America, the greatest and most powerful politico-economic power that humanity has ever known has realised that the advanced and rich western world can no longer ignore the plight of the poorer and underdeveloped world. Those "nation states", who have totally failed the test of self determination and self goverment, and degenerated into obscurantism, sectarianism, tribalism, and all the other isms of hell, pose a mortal danger, both to the people unfortunate to live there and to the Western civilisation itself. More so since the technical complexity of the advanced world render it particularly vulnerable. The danger is real, oh so real! Anybody doubting this is living in a fools paradise.
So Action was decided upon. Action to change the situation in this twilight zone ( c.f. George Orwel - 1984 ), action to bring the values and standards enjoyed by the prosperous world to these places, by force if necessary, by example preferably. And action was taken. this in a nutshell. Let who may tear their hair off. Let them protest until their lungs puncture and shout until their throats bleed. This is it. It is like all great movements in history, characterised by singlemindedness and overpowering impulse. The old style of european imperialism, which aimed at exploitation, cheap raw materials, and keeping people backward and in a state of peasant low existance, has gone and is no longer suitable for the world. A globalised world where every body can enjoy the freedoms and benefits taken for granted by the "advanced" world. This is liberal neo-imperialism. Is it eutopean, is it unrealisable ? I don't know the answer. But the campaign is already under way.
Years ago, in my earlier youth, had I heard somebody talking like this, my hair would have stood on end, I would have been thrown into a fit of rage enough to give me heart attack. But years of suffering, years ground to dust and wasted living under a system which had hardly anything right in it, atavism which took us back to a moral state comparable to that that existed even before the reforms of Islam fifteen centuries ago, have finally brought me to this forlorn conclusion: that perhaps it is better this way - perhaps that really, salvation lies herein.
Caution to the wind. Consider this: if the U.S. tommorrow announces that anybody willing to come to its land would be given the "Green Card" immediately with no further question, how many people do you think would stand in line? Answer this question if you dare ? Why if Western values are so bad and so terrible would you find Muslim, Hindu, Buddist, and every colour and every breed standing in that hypothetical line, in their billions ?
But America cannot take in the entire humanity, so america decides to go to them instead.
Fool, romantic, freak, say what you may. Romantics have always shaped history.
Caution to the wind, caution to the wind.
"Thus Spake the Ordinary Man" - Long Live the Blogging Revolution.
Salam Alaykum
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