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."
God willing.
Sixty-five years ago, if we showed the resolve displayed today, I would probably be going out tonight and asking the French waiter what wine is best with weinerschnitzel.
Bless you for saying the truth. Lord help us all if we fail to recognize it when it's staring us in the face.
Voters are not angry over the Iraq War itself, they're angry that we're not fighting it like we should. Yes, the MSM/Dims are responsible because they've lied to the American people and withheld pictures of our troops rebuilding Iraq but the Bush administration is partially responsible too for not fighting back against Dims who want to court-martial our Marines for "war crimes" and give terrorists Geneva Convention/US Constitutional rights.
WOW.... Thank goodness I missed those posts. If we cut-n-run we are handing Iraq to Iran and Syria on a silver platter. I heard Laura Schwartz say on FOX tonight that basically the Dems are waiting for the Baker report to come out and "prove" what they have been saying for two years now, that this will actually embolden them for 2008 by using our own report (the Congressionally mandated report) against the GOP.
Free Republic is infinitely the richer for your presence and your contributions here, kristinn.
Thank you.
God Bless America!
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.
---Thomas Jefferson
"Ancient History": U.S. Conduct in the Middle East?Since World War Il and the Folly Of Intervention
by Sheldon L. Richman
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-159.html
Killing Hope : U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II-Updated Through 2003
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/images/1567512526/ref=dp_image_text_0/702-6292296-5563223?ie=UTF8&n=916520&s=books
Tracking Covert Actions into the Future
http://mediafilter.org/caq/CovOps.html
The problem I have is the way it is being conducted right now. You put it well, our forces over there now are not much more than policeman walking a beat.
That's how you fight a counterinsurgency war, and it's a long nasty kind of war. Too many people seem to think wars should be like a made for TV movie, over in 2 1/2 hours including commericals. Well it's not, it proviedeing security for civilians, it's building schools, in other words it's Hearts & Minds.
See ya, idiot.
Saying that the decision to take out Hussein was the right one does not make it so. You can keep playing the blind-to-reality card as long as you like, but don't go trying to enforce discipline here on FR, we all think for ourselves, this isn't DU.
WW 2,in aprox. three and and a half years 407,000 troups died.In about the same time frame in Iraq, 3,000 troups died. Bin Laden was right,America does not have the stomach for the battle.With this media and the fortitude of today's public,we would be speaking German with Japanese as a second language.
Thanks. Kristinn, for reminding everyone why we must allow our troops to WIN THIS WAR!!
God bless everyone in the military. My family prays for you at every meal.
Dear President Bush, never go "wobbly" on them or us!!
Thank you for your thoughts on this.
Do you happen to have the numbers/percentages of areas in Iraq that are now totally under Iraqi control, lead by Iraqis, etc? I think that would put an exclamation mark on your post. So many seem to not know how that is progressing. They presume that it is not progressing at all, but it is coming along, and that, in my mind is a huge factor in winning in Iraq.
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"Cut and run" is not a "reasonable" alternative, especially since the result would be FAR less desirable and require a quadrupling of effort to return to where we are now.
Cut and Run conservatives have not offered anything more the rats have already offered: nothing.
These clowns have not read about the struggles we had following WWII, we spent about 7 years trying to establish peace and democratic government. The whole time our men had to battle insurgents in Germany who liked the Nazi way of life, because they benefitted from it.
In today's instant gratification lifestyle, everything has to be completed within a single mouse-click time frame. Well, it's not going to happen for this one.
The world is full of short sighted quitters. These clowns have big mouths and no content. They are great at bitching and complaining about anything, but they are even better at blaiming incompetence on anyone else. Most have no recent successes in their lives, or none at all. They've tried college and quit because they got a low score on a test. They didn't even consider studying harder and knuckling down with the books as a solution, no, just quit. They try a small business and quit when they see the seemingly endless paperwork they need to fill out before they can even start. They don't reflect back on the owners as they drive by thousands of small businesses, and simply ask them how they did it. No, just cut and run. They are the same type of people at the hospital who never show up for long term treatment after they have been diagnosed with a dibilitating disease that can be put in remission or cured with a difficult treatment program. No they think it will all just go away if they could just run away fast enough and ignore it. But "reasonable" people know better.
I haven't heard any cut and runners speculating on what would happen with terrorism and world stability if the USA were to cut and run. No, that would require work, and we already know the M.O. of the Cut and Runner regarding work and dedication. Their short sighted, narrow opinion is steeped in ignorance and precribes that they must avoid any hard learning or other difficult effort.
The world is at another pivotal moment in human sociology. Cutting and Running from terrorism will only make it worse. The world has been diagnosed with the terrible disease of Terrorism, and we must fight this cancer, despite the pain, despite the work, and despite the effort needed and fear we may have.
We have the tools, technology and brains to kill this cancer.
We have no other choice.
To some extent, one of the points was to keep Iraq a state and prove that a purely civil, non-partisan government could work. This would provide an example of stability for the region, in theory.
Personally, I'm not sure it can, but I don't think splitting it up would help, because that would just leave each of the segments as easy pickings for its sponsor (Iran in one case, Syria in the other).
The Kurds are sort of our friends now, but they have a major Communist-nationalist terrorist movement rooted there that they have not renounced. It is a very complicated situation indeed.
But whatever we do, we have to be perceived as winning, or this is going to lead to even worse things in the future for all concerned.
I've never supported pulling out of Iraq. I have, however, always supported offering the insurgents a reacharound, as a matter of common courtesy.
"...fighting back against Dims who want to court-martial our Marines for "war crimes"..."
That I forgot. The Pantano incident among others was a disgrace. The enemy our troops are fighting is bad enough without the government watching over them ready to jail them if they pull the trigger one second to quickly when somebody or something is doing something very suspect.
You would have preferred leaving him in power?
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