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."
I agree. There's no way we should leave.
IMHO, the problems we are having there are the result of having to fight a PC war. We should simply have made the entire country submit and then made them all live in peace and free of their dictator for a few years until they got a taste for it, all the while keeping Iran and Syria at bay.
We should stay - but we should change our approach. Whether the Iraqis like it or not, they need us or they will have no country. Whether we like it or not, we have to finish what we started and we have to finish it well, but that may mean no more Mr. Nice Guy.
Thank you, Kristinn, for calling some weenies out on the carpet. I'm posting from Fort Hood, Texas, home of the the 4th Infantry Division, among other amazing divisions. These, of course, are the ones who pulled Saddam out of his wretched little hiding place. Please, FReepers, let's not let their heroics ever be in vain. Pray that President Bush continues to to listen to God for guidance. If God wants the president to change course, so be it. But if he is following through with what he is truly discerning from God, then I pray he stands steadfast until the job is done, no matter the criticism he faces both globally and locally. Thank God that our president doesn't govern by the whims of the attention-deficit American public!!
God bless our troops, God bless President Bush, and God bless FreeRepublic!!
I haven't either and I agree with your sentiments.
Knock it off with the keyword abuse.
Too many Americans don't realize it, and almost zero pantywaste politicians realize it. How can we win this greater war (not just Iraq) if we're afraid of defining the enemy?
They're called seminar posters.
My version of cut and run - Cut the PC bullcrap and run the bastards down and kill 'em!
Thanks for a well written thread. All you have to do is look at the number of Freepers that would vote for Hillary to see we have a lot of cut and run DemocRATs because no Conservative would vote for her under any circumstance.
I am one who does think that the *mindset* of the people of Iraq needs to be respected. They do NOT share our values or our aspirations. The Sunnis hate the Shia and the Kurds. The Shia hate the Sunnis and the Kurds want their own state.
Which one? "Civil War"?
Today, Sunnis kill 215 Shites, the Shites bomb a Sunni mosque. The Iraqui army stands by and does nothing.
I'm beginning to doubt that liberty means anything to Muslims.
I'm beginning to believe that a free and democratic Iraq is a dream we Americans want to see, but will never happen.
We spent our blood and treasure to give them liberty, and the spit in our face and plot our death.
I don't want to cut and run. Let's fight them there, and not here. They must be stopped. But I don't see a free Iraq.
You know, lily, I've begun to wonder who is controlling who.
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.
I wish our President had woke up and smelled the coffee about a year ago. Rummy and the like have led our military (which is not an occupational force) down a miry patch. No, there were significant mistakes made and because I can see the mistake(s) and don't blindly "stay the course" does not make a coward of me and for you to quarter-back such a statement puts you in league with the inventor of the internet, Al Gore.
I call 'em, "easy to spot"....it seems you do as well.
On the day victory in Iraq is not the objective or on the day when a withdrawal date certain is set that is the date when all us troops and material should be withdrawn. American blood and treasure should only be expended when absolute victory is the objective.
Right on Kristinn!
"Wobbly" Americans and Freepers ARE aiders and abettors.
The enemy has been encouraged by the U.S. news media and many Democrats in Congress. The recent election, which was a statistical average for the last midterm of any administration, has also emboldened the enemy because they believe they affected it. For me, this war will make the most sense if it is fought indefinitely. It is a test of wills and a test of faiths. If we exit Iraq the next battleground will be Europe and after that North America. I still believe Rumsfeld when he said we cannot lose this war militarily in Iraq but we can lose it in Washington D.C. and in the newsrooms of the U.S.
Political correctness is stranguling us.
Thank you, kristinn.
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