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 yes, absolute, indiscriminate carpet bombing would've been a good start. It would have shown our enemies in Iraq and elsewhere we meant business.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
LOL!
That baby needs a nap.
Thank you for telling the truth, even if the targets of your missive will think it's hell. (to kind of mangle old Harry Truman)
a nice Gewurztraminer should be good with a veal dish like that, although I prefer Reislings myself.
Answer the argument!!! Name one thing!
I'm a long-time freeper, been here under this name since FL 2000, and on the board since 99 under a different name. Read the whole post, really, stop assuming your own conclusions for once.
I think this would be an appropriate time to quote one of my favorite historical figures: Sir Winston Churchill.
"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."
"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried."
"It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time."
"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half."
I think all of those are appropriate for the current situation. There is, as far as I'm concerned, no way to go but forward. Anyone who thinks we can leave now is being deceived by the MSM and the liberals. The Iraqis are counting on us to finish what we started and so are the brave troops who have fought for this country.
I saw FL 2000 as it happened here in this state. And signup dates don't mean much since we've had long time trolls before.
That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is "Don't drink the mainstream media Kool Aide." Always consider the source. We know that they are embedded with the terrorists, as they were embedded with Saddam himself, trading telling the truth for "access".
could not put my finger on the negativity I was seeing here on FR, but you described it perfectly.
Glad I wasn't the only one seeing this.
I'm all for victory as long as our young brave troops are not forced to fight a war in a PC fashion which will only result in another vietnam. It's not possible to really be supporting the troops and support their hands being tied and not allowed to shoot the shooters from the mosque before the shooters shoot them.
Im support an unconditional victory
I think you're getting a bit hysterical over this issue. Implying that people who want to leave iraq are anti-American, treasonous, or polluting this site is, perhaps, beyond the pale. "Claiming to be patriotic..." do you have a patriotism test? Think like me, or you're not patriotic? Is that your message?
I hope not.
Can you read minds? When a person says they support the troops, do you have a technique to tell if they really mean it?
Please note in this post I am not endorsing or decrying the war. I wish there were no war, but I'm perfectly willing to fund and fight them when necessary.
Does it really astonish to you that people don't think like you? What planet are you living on?
I doubt few Freepers understand the threat Saddam posed, the folly of Oil for Food, and the many other reasons for going to iraq. I also hope we can win this war, that we can stand firm and fight long and hard. I pray for victory.
But I can't see the whole picture, and neither can you. Only God can. Let's put our trust in him, not politics and country. And let's not attack those who disagree with us as being anti-American or unpatriotic.
You wrote a thoughtful post and made a lot of great points. i don't have a problem with the bulk of it. But I really take issue with your attitudes towards those "polluting" FR with sentiments different than yours. We must be able to discuss these issues thoughtully and fairly.
**I've seen no evidence of this at all.**
Then open your eyes.
Amen!!!!! I find it ironic that so many FReepers probably said the same thing about nation building when it came to Haiti and Somalia, but once a Pubbie was in the WH, it became a perfect legitimate mission for the military. IOW, what's good for the Pubbie goose isn't good for the Rat gander.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
I saw it expained with video on the History Channel.
Post 155, great post.
Whatever. This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. This holier-than-thou, elitist attitude here on FR. Whereas some FReepers are apparently more purer than other FReepers, why, they're just riff-raffs, like unshaven beggars standing outside a glitzy restaurant filled with limosuine conservatives.
Name me some "cut-and-run" FReepers. Post the links of FReepers who openly advocate the Dim strategy of leaving Iraq. You can't. I guess it's so much easier to post childish images that was probably ripped from someone's MySpace webpage.
If you think the region was stable under Hussein, you are quite mistaken. After engaging a long, savage war with Iran, with the help of the USA and others, he turned on us by invading Kuwait and threatend the poorly armed Gulf states. After signing a treaty, he spent the next 9 years violating that treaty, and by 1998 he more or less had. Which is why the Clinton administration called for his overthrow. Meanwhile, by acting as the Saudis gendarme, we had intensified Islamists feeling by basing troops in Sauadia Arabia. Saddam was one of the main mischief makers in Palestinem as he noit only condoned by rewarded those who blew themselves up and made peace inpossible.
My favorite
"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy."
Speech made to the Canadian Parliament, December 30, 1941.
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