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 don't see that in this copy of a Jan 03 ROE for U.S. Military Forces in Iraq.
Do you have a source to support your statement?
Probably because the people living under Saddam's thumb weren't allowed such "freedoms" to blow themselves and everyone else around them up, because even having something simple as a pistol in your possession meant a death sentence.
Under a dictatorship, you either tow the line or die.
Premise #1: Muslims are not capable of making Democracy work
I tend to agree with you on that point my friend.
I believe that if you're gong to fight everyone has to die , everything has to be destroyed ( as in dresden ) otherwise it drags on forever . Americans never stood by long wars.
You owe me a new keyboard!
One of the major complaints out soldiers have is the confusion of the ROE because they're changing almost daily. If your copy is jan. 2003, you may as well toss it. It's obsolete
Jan 2003 predates the invasion of Iraq. The ROE would completely worthless now, since we're now dealing with insurgents.
Engaging the enemy doesn't change overall. Our troops are told not to destroy property, even if that means a gold domed mosque, or schools, or hospitals, which are used by our enemy to store large weapons caches, because they know our troops have a set of rules to abide by.
We can thank God and Bush for that.
The orders for bombing Iran should be divulged to the big four in a closed meeting with the Prez and VP one day before the bombing. The purpose of the meeting is FYI only not to take their permission. Klintoon didn't and never went to the UN before the Balkan war. We can't afford the liberal leaks and the Sy Hersch crowd warning the Iranians. This is not a poll taking exercise and it is essential that Bush does this before leaving office because he shouldn't trust a RAT or McPain_in_the_poopa to do it.
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.
I repeat, thank God and Bush we didn't get a bloody face. However, I wouldn't sell the American people short, they will understand when all of a sudden things calm down in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria capitulates, al Sadr is marginalized or killed, and no more threat from Iran. Guess what else: the 6-party talks will become a real party! LOL
In addition, it's a huge message to Russia and China: we're the ONLY superpower and it will remain that way. Let them sell their hardware to somebody else and they should be careful about what they sell.
I pray somebody is listening.
Ain't that the truth. I'm a border bot myself and if they don't like it, they can lump it. My country means more to me than their opinion of me.
"that may mean no more Mr. Nice Guy."
You don't win wars by being Mr. Nice Guy. SOmething the Democraps can't seem to realize.
It starts in the schools.
American children are taught that patriotism is passe, that cultures are relative, that western civilization is evil, etc.
This is reinfornced by the major media and mainstream churches and the result is generations of Americans who have lost their moral and social compasses.
bookmark
Until many American's wake up and realize what Iraq is part of, every conflaguration up to that point will be an uphill slog. Many American's don't have the courage, faith and conviction to look terrorism in the face and erradicate the scourage that is terrorism, off the face of the earth. We're not engaged in a Global War On Islam, we're engaged in a Global War On Terror. That's where the "Axis Of Evil" is significant.
"Even if it was a good idea, which it is not, Iraq is not ours to divide. They elected a sovereign government, you will recall, and the Iraqis themselves don't consider this option."
The pros and cons of dividing Iraq have been disputed for some time. AS you can see from my posting I believe they have some merit, but I also understand the dangers involved as expressed by those who opposed it.
However, Iraq BECAME ours by right of conquest. The mistake we made there was treating the situation in a manner any different than NAZI Germany after WW2.
We won, they lost. We should make the rules and they should abide by them or face dire consequences.
When we get away from that line of thinking, we get embroiled in liberal philophical nonesense - the kind of tripe that created Viet Nam.
Correction: we know that someone wrote a classified memo about recruiting suicide bombers, including bombers who could hit American interests. We don't know whether they tried to recruit, and if they did, how many recruits they got. If they ever got any, what happened to them? How come none of them ever came to bomb our interests?
We certainly didn't know any of this before the war.
On the other hand, will we invade any country that secretly recruits suicide bombers this way? I'd be willing to guess that there are several.
Okay, but we've just foisted "freedom" upon a people that isn't culturally attuned to Western freedoms. The people there seem uninterested, unable and unwilling to exercise it responsibly.
Given that, can we say they're better off now that they're less safe and live in great instability, than they were when they lived under an authoritarian regime but they weren't getting blown up every day?
I really don't know the answer to that question, but I do know that the instability sucks for us, since it means we have to stay there without an end in sight.
Nice non-argument. You're sure a smart fella.
I assume you think it's a good thing the Iraqi Christians are being forced to move to other countries. Our policymakers do bear some responsibility for the consequences of the invasion -- both good and bad -- don't they?
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