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."
indeed, that is another angle on this that the "stay the course" freepers must accept:
if we spend the next two years doing exactly the same thing in iraq we have done for the last two years. If we find ourselves in 2008 - debating the same issues, taking 80 KIA every month, listening to Abizaid pontificate, negotiating with Maliki, daily stories of car bombings and militia killings - the Dems are going to win in a blowout in 2008.
what does open boarders have to do with Iraq?
I'm not quite understanding what you meant by giving them democracy 'too soon.'
The Bush-bots and open border people are the ones known well for using "troll" and "DUer" the most these days
That is the dumbest thing posted on this thread.............and that is saying something, since it's filled with stupidity.
Congratulations.
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Saddam was not only paying money to Pali suicide bombers, but helping al Qaeda and murdering his own people.
If that weren't enough for him to be taken down, he broke the treaty he signed, after the Gulf War. Do you not realize what THAT means?
ONCE ONE OF THE PARTIES BREAKS THE PARTICULARS OF A PEACE TREATY, THEN THE PARTOES INVOLVED, ARE AT WAR AGAIN!
You want to be a missionary? Fine...go over to Iraq and preach! Don't sit there, in your safe and comfortable abode and preach on FR!
Mr Clinton gave us 911, what will Ms Clinton give us?
Ooooh... I touched a nerve, eh? So, you like Tancredo?
It was both nonsensical, and dishonest.
Deal with it.
To be quite honest this nation did not have a good start.. We had slavery, women was not allowed to vote unlike the those savage females voting in a muslim country (that was sarcasm)... You are right we are not superior, we are just lucky to be born an raised in the greasted nation on gods green Earth...
Iraqi voters risked their lives to vote in large numbers.
Your statement is wrong.
The people here who say that Iraqis don't want to be free are just plain ignorant.
Oooo.........I LIKE that one, Steve. :)
True, if we allow it. We absolutely shouldn't.
It is shiite majority, and post-invasion it will be weaker.
True again, but what you don't know is that the majority of Shiite Arabs HATE the Shiite Persians. Ayatollah al Sistani has a following in Iran, no wonder Sadr wants to kill him to take over for his masters in Iran. Again, we shouldn't let that happen.
..... don't overthrow the regime, but destroy much of the military and set their nuclear program back to square one.
Overthrowing the regime may be collateral from bombing Iran and that would be excellent.
One of the downsides of Iraq is that this makes it much tougher to do this politically.
I'm sorry, I don't understand your point.
The problem is we don't have that much time. There is soon going to be equipment issues and fatigue issues to deal with. Even local reserve and NG units are loosing their equipment to Iraq as well as what was sent there by active duty units. What goes to Iraq stays there. What was sent there may or may not see a replacement.
We've been deploying on borrowed time since Gulf War one. A fact neither the GOP or DEMs want to talk about or do anything about. I'm not so much concerned about Iraq as I am or entire defense infrastructure and as to how much more of this it can take while nobody is in the build up mode but rather still downsizing the military. It's insane.
It would be interesting someday to go back into the Amnesty Threads and see where those guys stand on the issue. :)
i agree with you. 4000 civilians isn't enough to force us on the same page. It will take a lot more then that.
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