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."
Unfortunately I fear whoever is the next big dog on the block in the next era, whether it be the Chinese or another nation, will not learn either.
As ISOLATIONISTS, Republicans wallowed in the depths of powerlessness and looked even more stupid than usual. If you want to go back to those bad old days, with the likes of Pat Buchanan, realize that this is the twenety-first century...not the 18th! And if it weren't for "nation building", Japan and Europe would never have recovered from WW II on their own.
pings
bump for later
AMEN, Kristinn... thank you for writing this excellent piece.
Exactly so!
Win or get out. The Iraqis have NOT stepped up to the plate. The IRAQI Police and Military are now part of the problem because they are not part of the solution. Yes, we have some doing well and others who are treacherous. Wonder why there are so many Generals (other than the Democrat Clarke) who disagree with the "stay the course". Heck, even the President no longer say "Stay the Course".
Time to realize that the Conservatives are PO'd at the War as are others, no not the Liberals but the new so called Blue Dog Democrats (I know they are still DIM in many ways). But I think some of you need to wake up, it ain't Normandy 2006. We were fighting a country then, not an ideology; understand what we are fighting and deal with it. For a few references, consider http://www.conservativeusa.org/ which states Bush has demoralized Conservatives - maybe some of the posters in this thread are out of step with REAL conservatism. I know some of the articles do not mention pulling out which is not what I said.
Pat Buchanan cites RUMSFELD at http://www.antiwar.com/pat/?articleid=6812 as "...Is President Bush willing to settle for less than we all thought? So it would seem. For it is difficult to draw any other conclusion from the just-completed Rumsfeld mission." Sounds contrary to the Long Hard Slog bravado.
I was going to post more, but the few contras I encountered are only interested in their opinion as opposed to reality and not in touch with what other Conservatives believe. Then again, we are with the thread or a traitor.
BTW, RANGEL's idea of a draft may come to fruition for no other reason than that the MSM is diminishing enlistments, ref: http://www.therant.us/ a CONSERVATIVE RANT!
As far as having draftees guarding your back in IRAQ, remember the D-Day you guys cited, well those were draftees. If the undisciplined draftees in Viet Nam were dealt with properly, there would be no need for worry or a need for an all volunteer Army. Draft them and ask for volunteers to go to IRAQ, send the rest to watch posts in Alaska, Afghanistan, the Borders etc .
"We have more Iraqis getting killed in the streets per day than we ever did under Hussein --"
You need to go back and learn the lessons of Saddam in power again.
Yes, Iraqis are getting killed in the streets in large number, but, first of all, those getting killed in the streets are still far below what Saddam did. Second, it is terrorists like Al Quaeda in Iraq and Saddam's people that are doing the killing.
WELL SAID!
|
He hasn't gotten the nukes he was clearly working toward. Nukes he would have found a way to deliver. He is not helping to pay the bills of Palestinian suicide bombers and is no longer able to recruit them to attack us here at home.
We've also sucked in an killed large numbers of "foreign" Jihadies who would otherwise be coming here to kill us and our children.
Outstanding summation, imo.
The Iraq=Vietnam lobby has forgotten a number of salient elements in this conflict, not the least of which is that we are fighting an enemy who will follow us to our shores should we 'cut and run'.
They ignore the differences between this conflict and Vietnam at our collective peril.
Had it not been for the media spin on events in Vietnam, we might have followed military victory with a political one as well, instead, the media and politicians, not the troops, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
ping
I didn't know it but after reading the original post I guess I'm one of the Murtha/Sheehan/Cut_n_Running/Cowardly Commie bastards. Iraq was a mistake from the beginning: faulty intelligence (WMDs), bogus Iraqi opposition groups (INC), etc. We have almost 3000 KIAs, 22000 WIA, and the rates are not decreasing.
How many times over the past three years have I seen hopeful posts talking about how many Iraqis are being trained for the new army? It doesn't matter if there were 500,000,000 Iraqis being trained, they're ineffective. As soon as we leave they'll split into Sunni and Shiite armies anyway.
There are an infinite amount of posts that if "cowards" like me were around in WWII, we'd all be speaking German and/or Japanese right now. IMHO, if we *fought* WWII like we're fighting in Iraq today, we would all be speaking German or Japanese now.
Probably the most damning thing I've heard since 2003 was about Iraqi Christians who were intimidated out of Iraq. They couldn't leave their houses for any length of time because Muslim squatters would occupy them. And no one would buy their houses because it was just a matter of time before the Muslims could take it for nothing. The Christians actually wanted Saddam back in charge because he kept the radical muslims at bay! They eventually fled to Jordan to escape the violence and intimidation.
On the opposite side, we aren't going to nuke Ramadi or carpet bomb Fallujah or anywhere else. We aren't going to hang Sadr by a lamppost and kill his army. That would mean fighting the war like we fought WWII. We *are* going to disengage and bug out.
Wake up! Bush has abandoned the original Iraq War goals. I don't see why any Freeper should continue promoting the abandoned policies.
OTOH, Japan's Eastern mindset was shared by her entire population. Old women and little girls were prepared to do their part to repel the Yankee invaders by stabbing them with bamboo daggers. So fanatical were they that it did take a nuke to subdue them. The lesson is there: Western nations know when the time has come to throw in the towel, because ours is a reasonable mind, relative to the rest of the world. Eastern nations are more fanatical, and will fight to the death against insurmountable odds...until they are beaten soundly and completely. Only then is there a chance they will toe the line.
Sorry 'bout the rambling thoughts...it's getting late, and all that leftover ham and turkey has me thinking it's time to take a trip to Snoreway. Good debate, all.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
do you not believe the numerous intercepted communications among AQ operatives like Zawahiri and Zarqawi lamenting their state of depletion, or even today's posts detailing the Anbar Sunni war on their operatives in that region?
--if it weren't for "nation building", Japan and Europe would never have recovered from WW II on their own--
Excellently stated; and the same is true for the former Confederacy as well.
No they don't exist, although a couple of shells may be in museums somewhere. We only built about 5, and tested a couple/three of those.
The War of 1812 was unfinished business from the war we'd fought and won decades earlier. Our neighbors were testing us. Checking to see if our young fledging government had sufficient resolve to resist.
Iraq is going through our post Revolutionary War phase right now, plus our War of 1812 thrown in for good measure.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.