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."
Do they just kill the Sunnis and Shia and then just leave everyone alone like the good little terrorists they are?
Hey dear,
I think you have kept us going while we were gone. Good luck in convincing anyone who does not want to change their wrong opinions. We had a wonderful time with my mom, brother and his family. DD, granddaughter and her boyfriend went shopping on Friday. She came back with 3 printers, a lap top, clothes and other goodies. I don't know what time they left to go shopping. I was not about to get in a huge crowd on that day!
Yes, and we have nearly wiped out Al Quada where ever the show their ugly head. We have done many things in Iraq, but that doesn’t change the fact that over 65% of the Iraqi population now believes it is ok to fight us on the streets. It also doesn’t change the fact that we have lost the support of the people in the US. Without the support of the US people we have lost.
I hate the thought of losing but the war was on a clock and the clock timer is up. There is no getting around it.
Only 4000, if we're lucky... this thread is very revealing - sadly so.
"That means you reject the nation-building side of Iraq."
I have no problem with the assistance we are giving the people of Iraq to rebuild their country.
"Then lets treat them as a military threat and turn the nation to rubble from 30,000 feet. That is a heck of a lot easier than fighting in the streets."
The entire country isn't a "military threat".
What good will turning into rubble what we've already spent billions rebuilding accomplish?
You are advocating BJ Bill Clinton's Bosnia Strategy...bombing from 30K feet makes nice pretty holes in the ground.
But unless there are grunts that move in when the bombing is done to occupy those pretty craters...all we've done is crate foxholes for the bad guys to hide in and shoot their shoulder launched AAM's from.
War isn't pretty...it's not something that can...if done effectively...be wrapped up in a bow in 100 hours or conducted from effictively from the safety of the wild blue yonder.
It's a down on the ground...dirty...bloody and yes deadly business.
If you don't have the stones to do something like that yourself...fine...I have no problem with that...but by God you need to get the hell out of the way of those of us that DO pack the proper equipment to go ahead with what needs to be done and not leave until it's finished.
It's even funnier that he was calling ME a "neocon"...but I guess it could have been worse...he could have labeled me a "Chickenhawk".
Hmmm, what about all the stories about the "real Iraq" that is flourishing now that Saddam is gone? When I said turn Iraq to rubble, I was not talking about the buildings. I was talking about the people. Presuming it is a military threat, of course.
If we don't stick it out and at least TRY to get that country back on its feet we WILL be back there and doing it again in a decade.
The only way Iraq will get "back on its feet" is if we find them either a dicatory, or a shiite theocracy. They will never "get back on their feet" as a democracy, because they were were a democracy in the first place.
Interesting.
You claim to be a Christian, yet deny the power of the Almighty God to change hearts.
In addition, you look down on others, created in God's image, as being inferior to yourself, and incapable of being free, or even desiring it.
You revealed a lot about yourself in those five words, Jib, and none of it is good.
LOL! Just wait..........sooner or later, he just might. :)
Neither was Japan.
The question is hardly facetious; it is fundemental to understanding just what we face. All this is because you and so many others have chosen to believe the lies, innuendos and half truths of the drive by media.
Osama is on the run, and the safe Taliban tidyhole he had is no more. I think he has a lot more to worry about than where he sends his followers, although this is still a big concern. His abilities to strategically reach way out have been severely curtailed. But Iraq is not as far, especially being in the very midst of the jahadi recruiting grounds. And yes, he sees Iraq as a central front to attack us from. Both he and Zawahiri have said so numerous times.
Are we draining the swamp? It's a damn big swamp. It will take years to make a difference we can notice. But we are, and we can. Every dead jihadi is one we do not have to deal with again. Either we make the commitment to do it there, or we'll have them coming to us here, especially giving their brand of zealotry, whch says we are the Great Satan, and they must fight us at all costs.
"I hate the thought of losing but the war was on a clock and the clock timer is up. There is no getting around it."
*sigh*...you just don't get it do you?
Only the most obtuse amongst us can look at what I listed as unreported progress in Iraq and then begin their next post with "I know...but..."
Thank you for stabbing me and the rest of the soldiers in the back.
We expect it from the Murtha's and Deans of the world...but not from people that call themselves "Conservative".
I'm certain you've seen the picture of hussain and rumsfeld "shaking hands" right?
Never, do you have it?
Now imagine how this thread looks from a soldiers POV?
Thank you for serving. We appreciate it very much.
These types have been emboldened by their victory on November 7th.
We just have to pray that eventually they expose themselves for what they are, and the mods get rid of them all.....
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