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."
One "former" FReeper evidently got banned (up thread) and called an idiot by mods for posting the key word "civilwar". What say you? Blackbird.
I posted this same sentiment two days ago but not on the scale you so magnificently have done here,
Thank you for a well deserved writing on this subject.
5.56mm
So, the lack of bold type denotes the lack of cut&run comservatives? Blackbird.
"Please let us finish our mission."
G-D Bless Our Troops.
Bump.
True words.
Well written.
Are you Pat Buchanan? Only he would say something so stupid and think it was genius.
LMAO! Spot on! Here's hoping you're able to hang around FR for a while. Welcome Old Hank. Blackbird.
Japan had no democratic experience prior to August 1945, either.
Bump . . .
There are so many quotes from George Bush the Campaigner, that puts George Bush the President 180 degrees out of phase. I've posted a few before regarding Nation Building that fall right in line with yours. This place would've come off it's proverbial hinges had this been "the toon" saying and doing the exact same things. Blackbird.
Don't pat yourself on the back just yet....You've still got a lot to learn.
I'll trust them before I'll trust the whinings of a soft and weak hearted civilian population.
thanks for writing,
we have many trolls and moles.
Aloe infused for your comfort, no less.
Just a token of my heartfelt caring, you see.
BTW, it is possible for a Trotkyist to become a Conservative. It just takes time and a lot of bruises.
Amen, chesty. Good to see you again.
I get sick reading this thread - not at those who wish to re-evaluate strategy (which IMO, needs to be done), but those who at this point in time emulate the Vietnam-era pragmatists and say this war is not worth the cost of winning. This war has been nowhere NEAR the cost of Vietnam, but winning it is even more vital than winning Vietnam.
They are willing to let the MSM spin this war the way the MSM spun Tet and the years afterwards as saying we are defeated, without bothering to ask the soldiers who is winning. From the comfort of their chairs they rip into Kristinn, who actually went over there to see for himself instead of just being spoonfed by CNN.
These ossified "conservatives" form an unholy alliance with the far left to where their positions become indistinguishable with the greatest America haters of our time - the type of pond scum that Kristinn, Doc Raoul and myself got to witness at a moonbat antiwar and impeachment rally in Philly - where they had no American flags and refused an offer from us to have one of ours.
A sane conservative will reconsider his positions when they align with such moonbats. Which tells you plenty about the sanity of the hard-core naysayers on this thread that they seek to further emulate the likes of Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin.
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