A Message to All the Cut and Run Freepers Currently Polluting Free Republic

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.

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."

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...

Was this really our plan? I don't remember anything about this in October 2002. We weren't sold this line about the Iraq strategy until the place had already become a mess.

Another poster shared above: This tired argument that somehow because we are fighting sunnis and shiites in Iraq al qaeda has less capability to strike the U.S. never had any logic behind it. It took only twelve men to topple the towers and kill 3000. Does anyone really think that al qaeda cannot find another twelve because they are all fighting in Iraq?

As I recall, the Iraq invasion was supposed to go well, it wasn't part of the plan to leave our military there for terrorists' target practice. We were going to be welcomed as liberators. But it hasn't gone that way, and the al Qaeda people are just one faction in a much larger insurgency we're fighting.

BTW, Iraq is not on the Arabian Peninsula.

What's most distressing is a thread like this one, in which people with very legit questions about the war are treated as though they are not "real" conservatives and don't belong on FR, etc. Especially when people are posting arguments like the one I was responding to -- that this war can't end, because it doesn't have any "conventional objectives." Isn't that a good reason to say we should never have fought it?

You guys just lost Congress for us with your war, but I don't see the few doves on this board coming after you with pitchforks and demanding that the moderators pull you off FR. And it's a lot less arrogant for me to opine on FR -- for whatever it's worth -- than it is for us to keep going with the current losing strategy in Iraq.

Well, let me tell you as the mother of a veteran who is going back............seeing people on this forum bash this mission, mock our troops' efforts and advocate getting out of there ASAP has literally nauseated me.

This forum was once a haven for military families. Recently it has become too painful to bear for many of us.

We have people with kids over there who have been devastated by the horrible comments on these threads.

MaineVoter may be mocking the FACT that DU has invaded, and emboldened in his bashing, but the truth is the truth.

Too many people have been hostile to our mission in Iraq, and mouthing DNC talking points on a regular basis.

It's naive.........no stupid........to think it hasn't been happening.

All I care about is whether or not the mods get it under control. Because if they don't, there are a lot of pro military people who aren't going to want to be here any more.

Interesting that you should insult those who defend the war on a thread with an article that does just that.

This article doesn't defend the Iraq War. -- it questions the validity of any other opinions. It also questions the conservatism of those of us who don't share the neo-Wilsonian worldview that lost at the polls on Nov. 7.

I have read about Kristinn for years now (we've never met), and I admire his activism. (Remember "FReep the Creep?") I'd just ask him and you and all the other "hawks" here (it's not a pejorative term, but if you don't like it, substitute something else) to give a fair look at what's wrong in Iraq, willing to admit if everything isn't a-ok.

The election's over, so it's not a political matter now, it's ok to look at what's wrong there and what we can do to salvage the situation. Because I'm sorry, but unless "winning" means "hopelessly stuck in-country because we've made ourselves the only thing preventing a civil war from breaking out and the terrorists from taking over," then we're not winning.

It's the MSM that is constantly distorting the picture in Iraq, with the goal of undermining the confidence of the American people in the Bush Administration. In so doing, they are deliberately partnering with the 'Rats in working toward withdrawal and putting the left more in charge of the American government.

One of the favorite MSM propaganda ploys is comparing the time the US has been in Iraq with the time the US was in WWII - as if there is any comparison between the two conflicts in terms of the number of casualties or scope or impact on American society and resources.

Then there's also the MSM tactic of continually counting with baited breath the American death toll - and using photos of recently deceased servicemen to play on the audience's emotions.

The MSM is fully aware of its contribution to the disastrous premature withdrawal from Vietnam and is more than willing to help engineer another fiasco in the Middle East - despite the negative impact of that outcome on the US and its allies.

Hopefully, the American people as a whole will ultimately not be bamboozled by this MSM trickery. And that goes for FReepers as well.

Here is what Iraq is about. This time actually read the links instead of clinging so desperately to your emotion based Neo Isolationists dogmas.

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

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