The esteemed Senator from Delaware thinks it's a wonderful idea. And the good citizens of Delaware wouldn't send a madman to the senate.....Or would they?
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."
you have freepmail.
It is all ready here. That is why our foes are waging this sort of Asymetrical war against us in Iraq. They know only we can beat US.
I hate the polls because they don't indicate if it is voting in the primary or general election..It makes a difference.
Barry Farber is filling in for Larry Kudlow WABC radio. He's fantastic! Just spoke about 1942 when the Germans where concuring Europe and where at the gates of Russia, the Japanese where all over Asia, and in Barry's young eyes we were losing. His dad told him we would win. Then he talked about the battles we started to win.
Good post. I agree with everything you said. Until we can fight them without both hands tied behind our backs, we are bound to be there forever or lose. We can't fight a war with Political Correctness.
It appears while we are trying to influence actions on the ground politically, we are determined to let the different factions fight it out. Perhaps we are hoping they will get tired of it. Obviously, we would rather they didn't fight it out, but we are talking about people with different ideas of what the Middle Est should look like. But the militants are drawing upon a vast pool of people; getting those who don’t have a job, to work, and vested in the rebuilding of their country is the key, in my estimation. How to do that is wide and varied, and we haven't been very successful in implementing an alternative.
I'm not convinced a large part of the US population has a real sense of what is going on, no real connection to the war, or a grasp of our global efforts in the war on terrorism. President Bush has tried to articulate the global cause, but I'm not sure how successful he has been.
At the end of the day, it will be up to the Iraqi's to determine the outcome.
1 That was usmcobra not me. Not that I disagree
2 Have you ever asked yourself why we don't "carpet bomb" cities anyone? Could it be because we don't have too? Could it be because we now have the technology to do pinpoint bombing?
3 Too many people just what kind of war this is, who the enemy is, how we are fighting them. Too many people think WWII, this is wrong. A better comparison is the Cold War.
The esteemed Senator from Delaware thinks it's a wonderful idea. And the good citizens of Delaware wouldn't send a madman to the senate.....Or would they?
---They know only we can beat US.----
Isn't that the truth!
Really Johnnie? What is your military expertise? Blackbird.
Here is what Iraq is about. Try actually learnings something about Iraq instead of just squealing your circa 1970 emotion based slogans.
One of the really infuriating things in modern politics is the level of disinformation, misinformation, demagoguery and out right lying going on about the mission in Iraq. Democrats have spent the last 3+ years lying about Iraq out of a political calculation. The assumption is that the natural isolationist mindset of the average American voter, linked to the inherent Anti Americanism (what is misnamed the "Anti War movement") of the more feverish Democrat activists (especially those running the US's National "News" media) would restore them to national political dominance. The truth is the Democrat Party Leadership has simply lacked the courage to speak truth to whiners. The truth is that even if Al Gore won the 2000 election and 09-11 still happened we would be doing the EXACT same things in Iraq we are doing now.
Based on the political situation in the region left over from the 1991 Gulf War plus the domestic political consensus built up in BOTH parties since 1991 as well as fundamental military strategic laws, there was NO viable strategic choice for the US but to take out Iraq after finishing the initial operations in Afghanistan.
To start with Saddam's Iraq was our most immediate threat. We could NOT commit significant military forces to another battle with Saddam hovering undefeated on our flank nor could we leave significant forces watching Saddam. The political containment of Iraq was breaking down. That what Oil for Food was all about. Oil for Food was an attempt by Iraq to break out of it's diplomatic isolation and slip the shackles the UN Sanctions put on it's military. There there was the US Strategic position to consider.
The War on Islamic Fascism is different sort of war. in facing this Asymmetrical threat, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone.
Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The "Holy" soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is mostly neutral in terms of guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
Did any of the critics of liberating Iraq ever look at a map? Iraq, for which we had the political, legal and moral justifications to attack, is the strategic high ground of the Middle East. A Geographic barrier that severs ground communication between Iran and Syria apart as well as providing another front of attack in either state or into Saudi Arabia if needed.
There were other reasons to do Iraq but here is the strategic military reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. One has to wonder if the American people have either the emotional maturity, nor the intellect" to understand. It's so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like "No Blood for Oil" or "We support the Troops, bring them home" or dumbest of all "We are creating terrorists" then to actually THINK.
Westerners in general, and the US citizens in particular seem to have trouble grasping the fundamental fact of this foe. These Islamic Fascists have NO desire to co-exist with them. The extremists see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. There is simply no way to coexist with people who completely believe their "god" will reward them for killing us.
So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest of the Jihadists realize we are serious. They same way killing enough Germans, Italians and Japanese eliminated the ideologies of Nazism, Fascism and Bushido.
Americans need to understand how Bin Laden and his ilk view us. In the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming "We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad" and recruit the next round of "holy warriors". Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11-01 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it
I hope the Mods are aware of what's going on.
But I will say this about 'letting it play out.' THIS is different than previous angry moments.
Miers, Schiavo, other issues have caused great division among us, but this is at the core of who we are. This forum has ALWAYS been supportive of our troops. Though these cut and runners are in full scale denial, with their yellow-spined cut and run message, they are bashing the mission of our troops, and sometimes even mocking them as well.
I cannot stay on FR if this continues. When the whole world has been against our military, FR has stood firm. If we lose this support here, there's no reason for military families to stay on this forum.....
I wish the Arm Chair Freepers would quit simply screaming their dogmas and actually listen to the Professional Military on the ground in Iraq. Gen Abizaid came back from Iraq 2 week ago to testify in front of the US Senate on Iraq. John McCain asked him if he needed more troops and the Gen basically told McCain he was an idiot for thinking more troops was the answer.
Now why would anyone want to do that! When it's so much more satisfying to simply scream and hollar send more troops and kill em all, I want this to be over in 2 hours...with commerical breaks.
Thank you very much for your post. I just posted this on another thread.
A typical result of the Nov. 7 RAT's win and not dealing decisively with Iran / Sadr.
None of our enemies has any fear of or even "respect" for us especially after the change of guard in Congress and the intended cut-and-run policy.
Implementing the "realists" BH study recommendations of conferences, negotiations, and capitulation will embolden our enemies and confirm their perception of our weakness.
One immediate, efficient action is to bomb Iranian military and nuke sites. This will cause Syria to fold, cutting Hizbollah off from its protectors and benifitting Lebanon. Another benefit is conveying an unambiguous message to Russia, China, and the world that we're still the only superpower.
I say immediate because of the impending Russian delivery of a mobile, sophisticated air defense system will cost us planes, casualties or worse, POWs in Iranian hands. Do we believe in the Geneva Convention?
I suspect you're wrong. The 2006 Election proved that, unfortunately. In fact, mush of the blame for the election results could actually go to those accusing the unhappy republicans of being DU Trolls instead of engaging them in a discussion like use to happen in FR before 2004. This new democrat-like technique of name calling and accusing those who question anyone who has an R next to his name is a losing technique because name calling does not win elections... it loses them. Just look at the 2002 and 2004 elections and see how the democrats have lost.
The worst thing you can do is anger republicans so that they hope the party loses to spite you. Unfortunately I think that happened a few weeks ago. As childish as it is... some people had succeeded in angering republicans with their name calling to actually hope for a GOP defeat just to teach the name callers a lesson.
I think the name calling should stop. If they are DUers... they would be attacking your ideas from the left. Not from the right. I would like to see those leftist posts you're referring to. Got any examples?
bump
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/2002; every once in a while, when the howls that Bush lied about WMD and got us into the Iraq war expunge the memory of what he was actually saying at the time, I go back to the speech he gave in Cincinnati the week before asking for congressional authorization. Re: nuclear weapons: "we don't know and that's the problem." Re: could things be worse after Sadaam taken out :"They could hardly be worse." I know people will immediately howl that they are worse. Worse than a terror regime perpetuating itself for decades? Was US worse off for having fought a relatively brief, bloody civil war or for centuries of allowing human beings to be kept as slaves? History and 90+% of Americans have reached the conclusion Lincoln was right.
My main comment about Iraq is and has been
"Da**ed if we do, da**ed if we don't."
We would have been criticized if hadn't gone in.
Now that we are there, I just hope we have enough men and fire power to do what it takes to get the job done.
Whadda great post! Absolutely well said! Thanks for posting it and Semper Fi
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