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."
Disagreeing with victory first, then peace, does not make a person an enemy. It makes them an idiot.
Being a silly girl? ;-)
Beats me. I went to read his info page because he was so combative and lefty-acting, but it's been pulled.
When and who with, do we sign the peace treaty, after we win?
What was the mission in '03, and what is the mission today?
What objectives besides regime change and removing the threat of WMDs from Iraq have we not accomplished?
This is a different war indeed. I would venture to say that it is so different that it can never be won or lost, the way conventional wars are won and lost, since it has no conventional objectives. It's an ideological (vs. territorial) war against a global death cult. You can cut and run from a conventional objective in a conventional war. "cutting and running" is conventional language which comes from a conventional understanding of what war is. We should talk about diversion, application, prioritization and conservation of our warfighting resources rather than cutting and running. Most Freepers are concerned with applying our limited resources in the most efficient manner for defeating the global death cult (GDC). Most conservatives are not interested in providing welfare.
Victory means exactly what its definition is: victory.
You can do better.
You may want to pass along your "profile page" to the WH, and the rest of our Goobermint. I'm sure all of our Intelligence Agencies would be impressed as well. Blackbird.
Kristinn, thanks.
rlmorel, thank you for post #658.
Everyone, no one has more mixed feelings about this mess than me. I say stay the course, but give the guys on the ground what they need. Running a PC war from an office in D.C. just doesn't cut it.
Now I'm a "sleeper troll"???
Let the cannibalism begin.
And I don't think over time the "cut and run" stance some are engaging in will play well in Peoria, as they say. That is why I am sanguine about the recent mid-term elections. I think it's a two-year Democratic congress, and then the GOP will regain its footing in 2008. Imagine if all this gnashing of teeth had gone on during WWII. Surely we would have lost.
And it's good that FR being utilized to bring this issue to light so that debate may ensue. So many forums are just glorified chartrooms, vanity sites serving no purpose whatsoever, except to give lonely, bitter people a place to gather, with no purpose other than childish self-indulgence.
If we care about our warriors in harms way, we must give them the tools with which to do the job they've been charged.
I think she was talking about the clown that got banned. You were mixing it up with him pretty good there.
"Manage the blowback?" Good Grief!!
I'll admit to going a bit wobbly yesterday for the first time, but I also know, deep down, that the alternatives will embolden our enemies and leave the Iraqi people to a worse fate than what they have at present. We've got to be patient and support our military until the job is done and Victory is declared. Thanks for posting this Kristinn.
Well said.
And socialism didn't fail so much as it was never really tried.
You're posting to the banned.
Hadn't realized. I was waiting for a response. I'm used to being maligned for my past. That's why I never hide it, nor apologize for once being young, ignorant and foolish.
Thanks for setting me straight.
Feel FRee to treat me as dense as you care to. Some here think that's all I'm worthy. Define Victory in Iraq. It shouldn't be that hard. It isn't hard to say, we'll leave when we are victorious, so when is that? I'll guarantee you, we will not win a war of attrition in a PC way. Run the numbers, 1.5 Billion vs. 300 million. Blackbird.
You're insane. I've done no such thing.
Go bug someone else. And NEVER ping me to a thread so that you can advocate bashing the mission of our troops.....EVER!!
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