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."
They ARE Semites. So, what you have said is anti-Semitic.
The right thing to do if you didn't mean what you have said repeatedly, and want to take it all back, is to apologize and ask that your anti-Semitic posts against the Iraqi people be deleted.
Hey! I signed up that year! The vast majority of us oldsters (that have made it this far), are wise and knowledgeable after so many years of FReeping. Still, there are clowns in every circus!
A lot....
Go Army!
So things where wonderful under Hussein?? Never mind the mass graves,the mass killings and the money he gave to the terrorist... Things where wonderful...
Why, oh why, did we take all this bliss and joy away from the Iraqis?? What good has it done??
Nasty old American soldiers! Bad President Bush!! BAD!!
(Are these guys on the same side, or what? LOL!)
The difference between Pat Buchanan and George McGovern is that Pat Buchanan lives in the past..
I wonder if Michael Moore is posting on this thread...
It reads like he is.
I don’t have control over how the citizens of the US on how to vote. There have been a lot of mistakes that has been made at the top level that the soldiers had no part in. If things where done correctly from the beginning it would of delayed the clock and sped up cleaning-up of the mess in Iraq.
As a soldier you did nothing wrong and done some wonderful things for a lot of people. I thank you very much for all you have done.
1- Leaving Iraq without an army? Your wording of "democracy" = redeploy = leave = cut and run. After spending our blood and treasure, you want to give Iraq to Iran with "ayatollah" Sadr at the helm?
2- Wrong target, Commander Bond, you should think of bombing Iran to get rid of their nuclear industry, Syria will fold thus preventing a Lebanese civil war and ending support to Hizballah, and definitely stop Iran from fooling around in Iraq.
The question is what would that do to your pro-life Senators?
Last time I checked, there was Freedom in Turkey and they are in the Middle East..... I guess freedom is only for "Christians" only...
I used to feel we might actually accomplish this after the over-throw of Sadam. Since, I've learned more about their religion, I no longer feel that way.
There are two ways to live life: with self-control(internal, lends itself to individual liberty) and social-control (external, tends toward state control of all actions, favorable amongst tyrannists).
Given the 'rules' that muslims must live by (according to their Koran) and the zeal with which they accept such, there is little possibility our system of government will ever succeed in their countries.
'East is east, west is west, and never the 'twain shall meet' seems very appropriate today. I would kill the first Imam that ordered me to stone my sister to death for being a victim of rape.
Perhaps the biggest block toward an understanding lies in their belief that they are superior to us, given their strict social order versus our 'loose' order-something our "accept our position or get banned", Freeper folks might want to re-think.
Given that the WOT and the War In Iraq have little in common (besides the fact the opponent refuses to wear a uniform), we musn't resort to a 'battlefield' strategy, but rather, one of obliteration of as many 'hostiles', followed by troop clean-up of whatever remains. IOW, our guys shouldn't be spearheading this event, they should be mererly mopping up what's left, and that could have been completed two years ago.
'You kill my people, I kill your people harder."
I think so....
If you believe it to be true, then by all means, continue to advocate for the present policy in Iraq. You will find little public support, and little empirical evidence, but perhaps you are right.
Japan was a complete theocratic, emperor-worshipping, militaristic, samuari-sword head-chopping society.
Japan also had a track record of orderly and civil society. Japan also has a homogeneous society. Iraq can claim neither of these.
We used to and in some places, we still do.
Your "logic" is tortured, but that is a nice attempt to twist "Muslims are not capable of democracy" into "semites are inferior."
Good post. I don't think the change of heart will only occur with a change of religion.
More so then a Governmental campaign to recruit terrorist to attack the US?
You really need to get the facts before you post.
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