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."
NO>..I listed countries...you tell ME which ones you are going to flatten...this is YOUR plan, not mine.
So- you think we should be in Yemen, not Iraq? You're the first one that heard that is a proponent of this.
Surely Reagan never mispelled "kiester" that badly.
I don't know what a "keyster" is... someone who keeps keys, perhaps?
"We have no idea what Iraq will be like in another 5 years...which is about how long it took for Germany to "settle down" from what I read."
Sources for that please.
On average we lose two or three troops a day. The loss of even one American is a tragedy but when you consider the casualty reports of previous wars including VietNam, this is historically low. I recall when Walter Cronkite would report the losses by the week in VietNam--hundreds each week, week after week. And the battle losses in WWII speak for themselves. It is misleading and inaccurate to imply that we are 'sitting ducks' when maybe two or three out of 140,000 are lost in a given day of operations.
I would like to see a more aggressive posture toward the insurgents where they live, and "Sadr City" is a rat's nest begging to be cleaned out with D-Con and a stiff wire brush. So no, Cut and Run is not an option, nor need it be--but "business as usual" is by no means the only possible answer, and a review of the whole approach is in order at this point.
No, are you?
Boy, Rumsfeld is the brunt of that. Is he still the SECDEF?
Thanks for making me inhale Mountain Dew thru my nose.
? Evidently, you did not read my whole post. The answer is in there. try reading it again.
NO
The facts on the ground in postwar Iraq and postwar Germany are as different as night and day. At most, only a handful Americans (that is less than thirty total) died from potshots of so-called German "insurgents." The comparison doesn't hold water but that doesn't prevent people here from making it!
You can say that again.
Iraqi officers interviewed for the oral history complained that their American trainers were often junior officers without combat experience. American officers expressed unhappiness about how their own training teams had been selected and prepared. One major tellingly remarked that “I went there with the wrong attitude and I thought I understood Iraq and the history because I had seen PowerPoint slides, but I really didn’t.”
These are useful insights. But they can only go so far when a host government lacks the will to rid its security forces of sectarian militia fighters more intent on waging civil war than achieving national stability. That so far has been the biggest obstacle in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/26/opinion/26sun1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Okay...so we flatten Iran...what happens in Lebanon, England, the Phillipines...Afghanistan, Pakistan..
just to name a few...after we hit Iran??
What about N. Korea...Kimmie is good friends with Iran..and might not like it if we bomb Iran.
China and Russia are friends with Iran also..what are they gonna do??
I have no idea what you are talking about...we haven't gotten to the point, in Iraq..of the post.
Common sense says it can not be done. History says it can not be done. There is no such a thing as a kinder gentler war. That is what many in here who raise Iraq war policy questions understand but many Bush supporters do not or do not want to hear. That is why many including myself had serious questions about going into Iraq as the congression declaration was written and under our current military readiness issues..
Psst. Go and re-check Member Opinion. There is currently a big goose egg under Cut and Run for FReepers. The non-member opinion has the only votes for cut and run. This is why you could provide no links to FRiends calling for cut and run. Congratulations. You got three zottings for nothing.
"It wasn't that way in Germany during the war...or right after the war though.
If we keep a presence in Iraq over 50 years...why would that necessarily be different than Germany?
We have no idea what Iraq will be like in another 5 years...which is about how long it took for Germany to "settle down" from what I read.
I guess quitting is easier than finding out."
If the situation in Iraq isn't measurably improved by 2008, there will be a Democrat in the White House not a Republican. That will determine Iraq's future just as this month's election was primarily determined by the current situation on the ground in Iraq. The Administration's ability to be successful just became measurably more difficult with the new hostile congressional leadership.
There you go with that "I didn't want to go there..." stuff.
I don't want to argue the past..
Our military can't take another 5 more years Poppy, Clinton, and Junior have about ran it into the ground.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1742943/posts
snip
"A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back," says Cpl. Peter Mattice, of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "In Fallujah, [insurgents] know our [rules of engagement] - they know when to stop, just before we engage."
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