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."
I hope Bush pulls no punches at his meetings with Maliki.
Partitioning Iraq would make things worse, unfortunately.
I'm sure President Bush will 'push' him along this week.
I'm still VERY optimistic about the future of Iraq.
Thanks for the link.
LOL! Spare the poor chickens, Fred.
Sure there are problems.
But what is better to have than democracy as you try to sustain it against the disruptors?
(Especially, when most in the country want it)
Of course it will. Partitioning Iraq will only have partitioned the people, but it wouldn't get rid of the turf war mentality of the mixture of the varying ideologies that exists there now. Iraq as it exists is a microcosm of the entire Middle East, which has been at war with itself constantly for ages.
it would have been better (with 20/20 hindsight) to have had a longer period of time under US control, recalling the iraqi army under tight US supervision to form the nucleus of the security force there, and then have had elections.
You two have me laughing...thanks...I needed it more than you know.
Wow. You are part of a microwave world, aren't you? No wonder the American people are upset, if they all want instant mashed potatoes here like you do.
This is real life, oceanview. You don't overthrow a brutal dictator after decades of oppression and have it all solved in a year.
it would have been better to kill those like Al-Sadr, go into mosques when the enemy is shooting us from them and kill the terrorists instead of going about it in a politically correct way
(Some of the comments on this thread are enough to make any decent person depressed. Laughter is good medicine to fight the diseases running rampant on FR these days.....)
Let me explain how this happened. First, the short answer is: we just liberated a bunch of democrats. How, you ask? Well, the answer lies in a simple comparison. First, they both 'worship' power over the people, one divine, the other not-so-divine (our courts). Secondly, they both get a pass when behaving inhumanely (headcutting, abortion, etc.) by the media, but go batsh*t berserk when a conservative text-messages a page. As masters in the art of the double-standard, they expect as much.
Comparisons between the worship of Allah and the worship of FDR may be countless, feel free to come up with your own. I for one, always enjoy the 1st of the year, when all the new 'laws' that were signed by my 'freedom-loving-state government' go into effect, such that I may be assured our liberties are protected and will be unassailed into the future, for generations to enjoy.[/projectile spew]
Freedom is not the 'natural' state of man, but instead it is some form of tyranny. I find it odd indeed, to think a people who've never know it might suddenly wake-up, and embrace it.
-- 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.--
Maliki has got to go. He is becoming too dependent on Mookie. Bring back Allawi (he looks a bit like Tony Soprano, acts like him too...).
Who says we can't go into Mosques?
Political correctness in the approach to the GWOT as a whole is what is making things tougher both in Iraq and everywhere terrorism exists. The media's penchant to excentuate the positives and accentuate the negatives aren't doing any good either.
Let's hope it's real this time.
Been there, done that
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1719621/posts
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I will also add, Blair whining about Saddam's death by hanging sentence didn't sit well with me either. Saddam's victims never had it so easy.
Here's what we're dealing with:
No pursuit into mosques without Iraqi troops.
Loudspeakers in mosques permitted to broadcast prayers for the defeat of America.
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