Posted on 12/05/2006 10:10:32 AM PST by jveritas
Based on what on what Defense Secretary nominee Mr. Gates has said so far in the Senate confirmation hearings, it is easy to conclude that he is a Defeatist. No matter how tough the situation is in Iraq he must not say in public that we are not winning the war in Iraq. That is totally demoralizing to our troops and will further embolden our enemies there like Al Qaeda, Iran, and Syria. Moreover the man has shown extreme ambiguity and uncertainty in his answers to many questions.
I doubt very much that he told the President that we are not winning in Iraq or else the President would not have nominated him. It may be too late to withdraw his nomination now, but our country and most importantly our brave troops deserve a better person to be the Secretary of Defense.
FedGov could get along without the Cabinet. They serve as decoys for the Pres and most if not all are indeed the Pres in all but the brass sign on the door and would sit in the Oval Office themselves if everybody ahead of them were to treat the job with the respect it gets from everybody else and take the next train home.
Do you honestly believe that Bush has a plan for preventing Mad-dog Ahmadinejad from getting nuclear weapons? Iraq will soon be divided between the Iranians and Al Qaeda after Bush starts a premature withdrawal. Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria will then fall to Al Qaeda, and things start to look very bad for Israel, for Europe and for the United States.
You are right.
Right. That's why you can't really compare the "War on Poverty" and the War in Iraq. The will to win in war takes committed leadership.
I agree with you. However the President does not need more troubles than what we already have, not the least from the new candidate for Secretary of Defense.
You seem to forget the Arab Shi'ite Islamofascists and their militias who are thoroughly embedded in the Iraqi government, courtesy of the U.S. taxpayers.
Good bait thread!
Michigan had their shot at #1. They lost. Florida won the toughest conference playing the toughest schedule.
That's OK. I understand there is no love for the Gators. We'll see who comes out on top in January.
If the US withdraws now, then Bush's presidency will have been a total, unmitigated disaster. It is difficult to describe the harm to the American position in the Middle East that leaving now, with Iraq in civil war, would cause. Decisions have consequences, and a decision to withdraw would have affect the US position in the world for the next century.
Do you really see it as a problem?
Upon winning the resumed war against Iraq, I've always seen that concept of winning the insurgenies as the minimum goal.
I have severed doubts, but will wait and see. The President has repeatedly said he will not allow Iran to have nukes, and I trust him (words have meaning, and one of mine is to help make it come to pass). The problem is, I can't remember if he has said that since the elections. BTW - his father started the Somalia endeavor (which Clinton messed up) in the last month or so of his Presidency, IIRC it was Dec 1992.
The defeatist mentality always ignores the good news. See the link above.
And by doing so you handed the terrorists like Al Qaeda, Syria, and Iran the biggest victory since islam existed. They will be emboldened beyond belief, they will control the Middle East and all its oil resources and they will use this huge amount of money to destroy our country and our way of life. If some terrorists in a cave in Afghanistan were able to do 9/11 with few people and some little money, imagine what the terrorists will do with hundreds of billions of oil money. If we leave Iraq without defeating Al Qaeda, Syria, and Iran there, then we are going to face the worst nightmares in our history.
One, Gates never said we were losing the war. Two, Rumsfeld told Bush we werent winning the war and staying the course wasnt going to do win it. That is why he was devising new strategies at the time Bush fired him. Seems the only one here delusional besides yourself is Bush. All is rosy with the world. Yeah right. Kill Sadr and mutilate his Mahdi militia and then maybe I will believe that Bush knows what he's doing.
"He said we're neither winning or losing."
Boy, that's a morale booster from the new secretary-designate.
Welcome to the consequences of sitting at home during election day.
The Iraqis have shown nothing but contempt for the stated goals of pluralistic democracy and liberty by their consistent readiness to overwhelmingly elect intolerant pro-Iranian Shi'ite fundamentlists
the libs and media want to turn this into a Vietnam.
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IF folks WOULD realize it IS turning into another Vietnam we'd be better off. We're handcuffing our fighting forces as our divided nation fights a PC war over there, exactly the same situation as Vietnam. Make glass out of the "troublesome" areas of the country and leave.
"Do you honestly believe that Bush has a plan for preventing Mad-dog Ahmadinejad from getting nuclear weapons?"
He can't even get the UN to embargo luxury goods.
Bush is weak. Has it ever happened that an incoming official could body slam his superior by comparing him badly to his father? REgarding force size that is.
Bush trusted the StarWars lobbyist Rumsfeld and fired Generals who disagreed with Rumsfeld's strategy.
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