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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."
No one was stopping them from leaving under Saddam, either. They just didn't have to because the Islamists couldn't get away with harrassing and killing them.
That you could compare this conflict to WWII just amazes me.
Doubtful. The new, "Democratic" Iraq will either be non-secular or non-Democratic, or both. Iraqi Christians -- the Chaldeans and Assyrians -- will likely end up a lot like the Lebanese and Palestinian Christians, mostly or all forced to flee.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~jveritas/
I certainly hope we take out any country that is preparing to attack us. What the hell is a country for if it can not defend itself?
I just don’t see how we can fight Syria and Iran without the support of the people.
Radical Islam is very much like the Nazi’s.
One would think so.
NOT THIS GAL......I AM NO ADVOCATE OF ANY CUT-AND-RUN POLICY!!!
Nancee
The only thing I've revealed, NO MORE RATpublicans! Something you're brand of "conservatism" not only allows, but actively campaigns for. Blackbird.
Oh, I wasn't lumping all in one basket... Just pointing out some weirdness.
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bttt
Even if we took out Syria, Iran and Iraq we are still losing ground to extremist Muslims. Things wouldn’t calm down all that much. But when governments are supporting terrorism we should take them out.
Correction: if we took out Syria, Iran and Iraq we made a lot of grounds against extremist Muslims. I don't think anybody will dispute that. When you take out Hizballah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters it's only a matter of time to stamp them out, especially if the Israeli/Palestinian problem is solved by virtue of no more terrorist intimidation.
The LONG WoT will continue but we would have advanced by leaps and bounds.
I just don’t see how we can fight Syria and Iran without the support of the people.
We're not going to be "fighting" them. It sounds like ground troops, invasion, long term occupation, etc.. None of that, a punishing air campaign for a week or so to wipe out Iran’s nuke industry, air force, navy, and their bases. It's about time to do it before the new mobile, sophisticated air defense system from Russia is delivered and deployed. We certainly don't want POWs in Iranian hands.
I told you in a previous post that the American people will understand that this bombing is not a protracted war a la Iraq and that the action was needed to knock off the enemies of Iraq and above all, to implement the Bush Doctrine.
Save yourself from the pain. Just poke some needles in your eyes.
OUCH! That smarts! Took less time, though.
I 'actively campaigned' for Blackwell and Jordan. I supported DeWine only because he was running against a communist (and YOU said I shouldn't, the only explanation of which is that you'd rather have a communist in the Senate than a RINO. I'm a conservative. I wouldn't).
Every post in which you state otherwise is a flat out lie, and you know it. Somewhere inside that feathered head of yours there is a conscience, and you know you're a bald faced liar, but your stubborn meanness is drowning out the truth of what you've been doing to me for months.
If I want to deal with leftist situation ethics where people excuse their lies as merely 'perception,' I'll go elsewhere. I don't expect to deal with it on a regular basis on FR, and every post from you is fundamentally dishonest.
If you weren't slandering me repeatedly on an open forum where others can read it and believe your distortions, I'd just leave it alone. But since others read your lies, I'm going to post the truth after every slanderous post you write. You're obviously a miserable little man with nothing better to do than mock people who work hard for conservativism, when you apparantly do nothing.
So, just quit it, or I'm going to start reporting you as abusive every time you repeat this lie. Stop it. NOW.
God Forbid! Who would ever dare to accuse you of such a terrible thing? LOL
Premise #1: Muslims are not capable of making democracy work.
But since it at least separates shiites and suunis, I'd be willing to give it a try.
You have a bunch of "the truth about Islam" links on your profile. Yet you also seem to think that Muslims are capable of making democracy work. Hmmmmm. If you really believe what your profile says, rather than the fuzzyheaded Benign Domino Theory of the neocons, you'd already know that Muslims cannot make democracy work.
Now that we are in the middle of a ten year nation-building exercise in Iraq, it will be tough for Bush to tell the nation that we need to launch a new invasion into Iran. The will is not there. But if did a Bush-I job on Iraq (read: inspect the WMD sites by force, but leave Saddam in power), our troops would be home now and Iran would be an easy sell.
No land invasion but rather a massive Air Campaign for a week or two on Iran nuclear facilities and military infrastructure just to show them that we can punish them anytime and punish them hard. An intensive air campaign will teach the terrorist Islamic regime in Tehran a lesson that they will not forget, and then Syria Baath terrorist regime will learn quickly to stop messing around.
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