Conservatism's Authentic Color
Stay The Course
PING!
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."
Oh BS!
Nice try, but a lot more died by Saddam's hands. Not even close. Millions under Saddam. Millions are a lot more than thousands.
BTW, you asked for one good thing, which I gave you. If you've ever been to the paradise known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you'd know just what I meant.
Thanks for posting this. I have been visiting FR less and less due to all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth. If my son in Baghdad isn't giving up neither am I.
But yesterday's plan is different from today's plan or tomorrow's plan...
"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?"
I basically asked this question upthread, and have no replies. Exchanging Rumsfeld for Gates gives me pause. What does Gates bring to the table, as far as more successfully prosecuting this war and achieving a victorious end? What I have read thus far is not reasssuring.
I would add to the list, "the posters who believe that the war in Iraq was just about nation-building." It was about going after a regime that was best buds with the Islamofascists plotting to destroy us - because they both hate the US, for their own reasons.
Fourteen provinces are relatively peaceful. Four are hot with "insurgents." Which do the media report on?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Conservatism's Authentic Color
Stay The Course
PING!
Of course what will happen, purple fingers waving in the air aside, is one of a few scenarios. Either the US will set up another strongman to rule with an iron thumb (defeating the whole purpose of the purple finger) or democracy will eventually bring about another theocracy. Of course the realists who were explaining this for several years weren't listened to but hopefully with Baker having a say again and the new Sec Def coming in some reality may leak back into the situation. Maybe there can be another solution. We can only hope. But all the talk of Iran and Syria needs to be tabled immediately.
The Gulf War had ended 10 years ago by the time we went in there. If you want to talk stability, which do you think would be more chaotic -- to just give up a tiny nation, or to create the conditions for a civil war in a big country like Iraq?
A lot of amnesia. What bothers me is that our guys in congress are so busy hustling for money for their next election and handing out goodies for their district that they have no time to study the war. I must say. though, that it has always puzzled me that the administration spends so much time pushing big federal educational and drug programs in the midst of what they have called a war to the knife. As I recall reading , Lincoln led Congress do its domestic thing, while he devoted all his time to the war. Bush has not done this.
The idea is to hit the target(s).
Thank you!
What we're doing isn't working. Start kicking @ss or pull out.
I guess that makes me a cut-and-runner...
One cut and runner doesnt think we should even have gone to Iraq. They also believe Chavez is a much better President than Bush. Nobody in FR fits this description.
The other cut and runner does feel we should be in Iraq and we should win the war but they do not feel our soldiers should have to worry about criminal charges everytime they pull the trigger to defend themselves or kill a terrorist. This cut and runner also believes we should go after the terrorists no matter where they shoot at us from. This cut and runner wants to see victory and not another Vietnam. If IRAQ ends up like Vietnam and we cut and run... it will be marked as a REPUBLICAN WAR for decades to come. Politically and Strategically we CANNOT lose Iraq. So, we either fight or we leave.
There are also 2 other groups.
One group are the dems and media...they secretly hope for as many american troops deaths as possible so they can use the number to win future elections.
There's a new group who is now willing to accept the status quo in Iraq now that the dems are in power. The status quo people hope to blame future deaths in Iraq on Nancy Pelosi. Bad news is... it is immoral and dishonest. It will result in a loss in 2008 if many join this group.
Me, Im 100% for victory...no less.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is." - George W. Bush - Houston Chronicle April 9, 1999
FYI, Japan and Germany were burnt to the ground having under gone the most barbaric high altitude bombings in the history of warfare. Hundreds of thousands...HUNDREDS of thousands of non-combatants were incinerated in firestorms before the will of those nations were cracked. The rebuilding efforts started from zero.
How in god's name does that compare with the PC bull crap going on right now? There should be firing squads going 24/7 until the slate has been wiped clean.
Nancy Pelosi was correct in her assessment that this is a "war" that cannot be won, only managed.......because this is not a war, it's another BS holding action.
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