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."
Cut and Run Freepers = Hate McCain and Love Bush!
al Qaeda and Hezbola and Hammas will NOT die out just by killing a leader here and there. There will ALWAYS be these madmen. What WILL keep the fanatic Islamics in abeyance, more or less, is when their coreligionst feel free enough to stand up against them; which they don't, right now.
Truth be told, we, America, have been fighting them, on and off, since the days of Thomas Jefferson.
There are huge mass graves of civilians. Women, children and old people. Obviously not soldiers.
I regret that we disarmed the populace there. As with any gun control scheme the ones disarmed are not the trouble makers and end up being helpless victims.
No, I just think it is pointless arguing with someone who denies that Hussein was responsible for killing Americans during the first Gulf War and who also thinks that Hezbollah was the outfit that brought down the twin towers on 9/11.
Sooooooooooooooooo, Muslims can't "EVER" have a nation that is a democracy? Turkey really WAS very democratic, until quite recently. Times change but go look up Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and see what a good job he did for Turkey.
You don't sound any different from the Islamonazis, who want world wide conversion to Islam.
But your solution is to do nothing until the evil knocks on your door.
Partitioning Iraq would be a disaster for no other reason but that the people of Iraq DON'T WANT IT. How absolutely arrogant to go in there, work for a Constitution that makes them equal, and then physically divide them against their will.
Getting rid of a dictator was one thing, but splitting their country up? Madness. I have yet to hear a true expert on Iraq say it would be a good idea and am astonished that it has gotten such legs.
We could use fuel air bombs over their heads!
War is hell.....look how we bombed Germany in WWII.
Bomb them into submission. Let em know whos boss.
Thanks for the great post.
You agree with him, that we had to pull out of Nam, when we did? That speaks volumes; far more about YOU, than you'll EVER know.
If you wonder just WHAT we have been doing in Iraq, I suggest that you need to read the threads on FR, about just that. You WILL get not only eyewitness info, that the MSM keeps hidden from the general populace, but perhaps you'll also learn that all of your and McLame's armchair bloviation is worth about as much as what comes from Murtha.
Spot on!
Is that right? The timeline in this article (which is backed up by numerous sources) shows quite a different story than you have 'discovered.'
SPECIAL REPORT ON IRAQ Fraser Nelson Westminster Editor Scotsman.com
It is a very simple request- provide the date(s), location (city, province, state, or even country), number of Americans killed, and perhaps an allegation as to who from the Saddam Hussein regime may have been responsible for killing any Americans (outside of the 1990-91 war, which has already been cited). Just because an inept functionary said "I think it might have been Al Quaida", you believe this? Nobody dares to think that 9/11 could have been Hezbulla. Sigh. They are all ragheads and look alike, I reckon. Never mind that 17 of 19 came from a country called the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The common wisdom is that the Saudi's are our friends and Pakistan really has American interest at heart. Right? Just like the Shiite killers of our servicemen are our friends. If you close your eyes and click your heels, it will not matter. Give me a date, place, and count. You can not.
Do you really think that our troops died in vain in Vietnam? I don't. In fact, I visited Vietnam a few years ago and I must say that thanks to the U.S. it has turned out to be a great country. We are going to be having close ties with the country shortly and be an intrical part of President's Bush's Global initiative (regardless of agreement or not that is not the point at this time). I think the country of Vietnam is better because of us. Sorry can't seem to agree with everyone that the military's lives were waisted in Vietnam.
JVERITAS Responds to the 11/3 NYT Article Regarding Iraq Nuclear Program.
"Reasonable discussion yes, but bashing the President, reveling secret programs aimed at stopping the radicals, calling the President a lier in Congress, preaching in schools that America is the blame for 9/11, trying to stop the President cold in every move he makes, makes one unpatriotic and a liberal, radical Islam lover."
I seriously don't hear any FREEPERS saying these things. Do you really???????
Thanks. It's really not hard to show that McCain is nuts but I guess some folks won't believe it unless it's engraved on a stone tablet from a cloud covered mountain.
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