A Message to All the Cut and Run Freepers Currently Polluting Free Republic

Friday, November 24, 2006 | Kristinn

[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."

[MaineVoter2002]

we must pick up our weapons and fight...and WIN

I agree! If they're shooting from a cathedral, we should blow up the cathedral. If they shooting from the Mosque we should blow up the mosque. We should kill Sadr now. If we are there we should fight for victory, not for the hearts and minds of jew haters

[moneypenny]

Great post! Ping for later.

[gidget7]

Thank you! Kristinn.

Sadly, this had to be said, and leave it to you to step up to the plate and say it. I feel badly for our country and our troops when I read comments like those you referenced here.

How people who join the cut and run crowd, can not see they are joining the left is beyond me! As for me and mine, we support the troops!!

[uncbob]

Kadafy give up his Nuke program ?????????????

[PghBaldy]

OK. He resigned. The President accepted it. I will leave it at that. I still don't understand the hate for him. If anyone is to be blamed for past problems in Iraq, it is the State Dept & the intelligence agencies who never miss a chance to harm the President.

[Red_Devil 232]

Apparently you have not seen this thread.

Pleanty of cut and runners on this thread

[ilovew]

**Your remarks on other threads**

What, you're stalking me? There's one thread that I spend the most of my FR time is spent on. And I know for a fact that you're not allowed on that thread. So I have no idea what posts you're referring to.

**My 26 and 28 year old children have a higher maturity level than you appear to display**

Well, that's not terribly surprising considering I'm 23...I'm sure that was supposed to be an insult though.

[CurlyBill]

Amen brother!! The cut and run FReepers are caving to the media and the left in this country. I just argued our side at a dinner party with some lefties... and this was not a popular thing to do. I was one against three, but I let each of these other guys know that I think they have "a little sugar in their tank." One served in Viet Nam, so he thinks he has license to trash our guys and our President. I left there feeling pretty good. They couldn't match my arguments... and only found comfort in having 3 against 1. Damn I love taking these guys on!!

[PhilDragoo]

We must go forward, even if it means taking on Syria and Iran, because to go backward will invite disaster, both abroad and here at home.

In his 1998 interview with ABC, Osama bin Laden remarked how shocked his al-Qaeda were at how quickly Clinton fled Mogadishu. And what caused that combat incident? Clinton's SecDef Les Aspin was the mouthpiece for the Clinton Janus and its upside down warfighting: i.e., go in force against women and children (Waco), prohibit armor and C-130 gunships against warlords' barbarian hordes.

Why does our Commander in Chief insist upon his New Tone when we ought to be fighting a war? Why are we still faced with a Fallujah and a Sadr City, an al-Sadr, a Sadr Militia?

Why are we now saddled with a SecDef from the CIA which failed to foresee the fall of the Iron Curtain and failed to foresee the invasion of Kuwait?

Why are we turning to Robert Gates and Zbigniew Brzezinski and James Baker and Lee Hamilton for a diplomatic solution to another confrontation with an intractable fascist enemy?

For all the pretentions of this pack of poseurs it fails to recognize and acknowledge the agency of the regimes of Iran and Syria.

While our forces are constrained by surreal roe's, jailed on the accusations of the enemy, and confined to pointless patrol, the enemy is allowed sanctuary at large, and every privilege of treatment and legal defense when detained.

For all the talk of war, the current operation is conducted in a constrained, apologetic fashion.

France, China and Russia traded with and abetted Saddam Hussein, yet this administration--along with the Left--would continue negotiations with Iran--and North Korea--while relying upon the assistance of France, China, Russia and other nations.

I have repeatedly faulted the president I continue to support for his obsession with pursuing his holy grail of the New Tone.

That's the stuff of Neville Chamberlain, and it doesn't work for those with no concept of limits.

For them, it's kill them and break their stuff.

Ours is the finest fighting machine on earth, unsurpassed at the art of war, always faithful in the defense of the nation.

Now's no time to go wobbly.

[Lancey Howard]

I'm no "cut and run" Freeper but THIS is really, really disturbing:

"A lot of us feel like we have our hands tied behind our back," says Cpl. Peter Mattice, of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment. "In Fallujah, [insurgents] know our [rules of engagement] - they know when to stop, just before we engage."

If that doesn't have the stench of McNamara's Vietnam, I don't know what does.

I remember during Vietnam my Dad offered this analogy: "Suppose the neighbor next door comes into our yard and throws rocks at our house, and we chase him but have to stop chasing him once he jumps the fence into the yard next door because we're not allowed to go there. Would you want to fight a war that way?"

We need to brutally and mercilessly chase down and kill kill kill the enemy or we should get the hell out of Iraq. (Of course, I realize the Marines have to be careful over there - - somebody might accuse them of accidentally killing a civilian in a war zone, and they could end up getting arrested by their own US military and put on trial.)

On another thread yesterday I read about "terrorist training camps east of Baghdad" Is that a joke? With our complete control of the skies, how could any square mile "east of Baghdad" which might contain a "terrorist training camp" not be turned into a crater within minutes?

And "insurgents", by their nature, "insurge" from somewhere else. We can't figure out where insurgents are insurging from and kill half of them before they cross the border? Gimme a break.... By now, there should be some fairly decent intelligence assets developed among the Iraqis.

So, either we go balls to the wall and kill kill kill, or we get out.
If that sounds like "cut and run", then so be it.

Sorry about the rant, and maybe the scumbag liberal newsrooms here in the US have finally beaten me down, but I need to hear big, daily "enemy killed" numbers (screw "detained" and "captured") and I am not hearing them.

Semper fidelis,
LH

[Lady Jag]

Thank you for writing this.

They want us to pull out of Iraq just like they have pulled out of this:

[Bushiefan]

We are not all that wishy-washy, and some who post are just democrat pretenders. I say withdraw from California and the carnage there, not Iraq.

Thanks for all you do. God bless our troops. Lets all support them with money and any way we can.

[Phlap]

If Bush pulled out now it would be sick.

And if the dems were crazy enough to cut off the money, well ...

[RobbyS]

The good in having him gone is that in 2002 he was THIS close to slipping the noose of the sanctions. If the inspectors had given him a clean bull of health, then he would have been home free. Within a year the oil would have been flowing freely and he could have done what the rest of these guys have done, which is to go to the jot-'em-down store and ordered up a fresh supply of materials for his weapons. The guy who ran his atomic program said that give material, they would have been up and running within a year. By now, they would have been more or less in the same place as the Iranians. Not good to have Israel, Iraq, and Iran, each with atomic weapons.

[reagan_fanatic]

This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about. This holier-than-thou, elitist attitude here on FR. Whereas some FReepers are apparently more purer than other FReepers

Well put, triple E, although you will find yourself in the minority here. FWIW, I think a vigorous debate on the war is vital to FR and to the country, and denegrating those FReepers who don't toe the majority line is a cheap shot and isn't what we're all about here.

My personal opinion - even though Iraq is a huge mess and getting worse by the day, it would be a mistake to pull out - a BIG one. Yet, we must find new ways of dealing with our enemy there. It's clear what we're doing now just isn't working. Are we killing a lot of jihadis? Yes. Is the ME and Iraq in particular a more stable and safer place now than before the invasion? No.

I support out troops AND their mission - AND encourage a healthy debate over our policy and direction there.

[HighWheeler]

"The region is now unstable in a way it never was with Hussein,.."

-- --

Sure.

Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, which provided all that incredible amount of additional stability in the region.

Yup.

[El Gato]

Are you suggesting unguided inaccurate carpet bombing?

Have you seen the pictures of the "Carpet bombing" of the Hanoi rail yards after Linebacker II? Overlapping craters, a very few craters outside the rail yards.

Todays B-52H is much more accurate than the B-52D and -Gs of 1972-73. Given an area target, such as a rail yard, or the "training camp" in the news today, yea, I'd send in the Buffs and the Bones.

Buffs and Bones can also deliver multiple precision guided munitions on a single pass.

[Revolting cat!]

[Marysecretary]

Great post. Hope it wakes up some of these lefties as to what is REALLY going on.

[PghBaldy]

Good points. I will vote for whomever the Repubs choose for 2008 (I hope it is a VERY conservative person... ). I will vote a straight (R) ticket. Still, I have my opinions, and they are not frivolous, or unimportant. Many conservatives felt abandoned by the GOP and the WH, and now we have the Dems to deal with. Hopefully, if will make us hone are agenda to win all 3 in 08.