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."
You have completely distorted every word I said, roxy.
I can only assume it is deliberate based on your posting history here. You are once again trying to cause trouble, and nothing more.
But for the record AGAIN. I do not believe the purpose of the U.S. Army is to spread the Gospel. My son believes that his primary goal in life is to honor Christ, and that is what he tried to do in Iraq, and will do again when he returns.
Things were not wonderful under Saddam. They aren't wonderful now, either. But back then, they were stable. Now they are not. Before, you were less likely to be blown up on the street.
The Christians in Iraq were not forced to flee the country under Saddam, but our invasion has removed any protection they had from the mad mus, and they are now forced to leave their homeland. Any thoughts on this?
Iraqi Christians flee to Syria because of pressure from Muslim extremists
Aug 03 (2004)
SALIM ABRAHAM
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - In small but steady numbers, Iraqi Christians are moving to Syria to escape the threats and violence of Islamic extremists, say Iraqi Christian exiles.
"The religious and ethnic pressure on us is tremendous," said Shamasha Muayad Shamoun Georges, 45, a deacon of the Chaldean Solaqa Church in Baghdad, who fled to Syria two weeks ago with his wife and five children.
Georges said the pressure comes from "Muslim extremists," not from the interim Iraqi government, which has a Christian as minister of immigration and refugees.
During Sunday evening mass, suspected Islamic militants set off a series of explosions at five churches in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, killing at least seven people and wounding dozens. It was the first major assault on Iraq's Christian minority since the Iraqi war began last year...
Priest Sends SOS for Christians in Iraq; Faithful Flee, Churches Close in Baghdad
October-26-2006
www.zenit.org
KOENIGSTEIN, Germany -- The recent escalation of violence in Baghdad has become too much for Christians caught in the crossfire, an Iraqi priest told the charity Aid to the Church in Need.
Father Bashar Warda told the aid organization that the conflict between the various warring factions has forced the faithful left in Al Dora -- Baghdad's district known as the "Vatican of Iraq" -- to leave.
"Nearly 700 Christian families living there have been forced to leave toward North Iraq, Syria and Jordan," he said.
"Up to a dozen centers of Catholic life and worship, including the only theological university, Babel College, and at least five churches have been closed in Al Dora," added the priest...
I have no argument with you that Iran and Syria needs to be taken out. I completely agree.
How are you going to get the American people to back you on this? It would seem at present the terrorist are not terrorizing the American people enough to hold our ground that we have.
I am saying the American people need a bloody face before we are willing do what must be done in that part of the world.
It has nothing to do with having a different opinion. Many others here have different opinions and are not suspect. You, however, are.....
Yes, but how can that be? I have not posted a single comment on FReedRepublicans.com.
What is your point?
If you are here to stir the pot, stir away.
No just a regular elite snob.. Some people seem to forget the problems that we had when this nation started..
I was posting someone else's Iraq Card list more than three years ago -- but fine, I think a lot of us believed it back then.
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The natural effect of releasing people from cruel oppression after decades is unrest..........especially when you have terrorists killing people and riling things up.
The fact that there is violence right now is not an argument for the superiority of oppression.
That is exactly what you are suggesting.
So a bunch of Chritians are leaving Iraq.. So that is justification of keeping Saddam??? You are an idiot...
It is better fight then not doing anything. But The Amarican people has had enough, we don't have a choice we have to leave.
Okay, fair enough. But we have no idea what it amounted to.
There has been all kinds of talk about an Iraq-sponsored attack on the U.S. since the Gulf War, we still haven't seen it happen.
you are misinterpreting many of these posts.
the idea is simple - fight to win. are we doing that? if we aren't, what are we doing? the status quo cannot go on for month after month, 80-100KIA. "stay the course" is done, even the administration knows that now.
the two options left are 1) fight to win, 2) have Baker make some regional peace deal so we can get out.
At least read on to see the situation we've put the Iraqi Christians into.
No we stopped that from happening.. The goal was to prevent the attacks...
Why don't you read more carefully?
I'm a Christian and my faith is important to me. I would hope yours would be to you, as well.
But being offended because you were reading things into what I said that weren't there, isn't really something that I can fix..........only you can.
We don't have problems that big, like 200 people getting blown up in a single suicide bombing.
But we're a people with a history and a long understanding of freedom, they are not. They have zero cultural background in this, it's a foreign Western idea to them.
This is just one reason why nation-building is such a bad idea.
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