Posted on 01/18/2007 7:50:55 AM PST by jveritas
The most lasting tragedy of the Vietnam War is that it has legitimized “giving aid and comfort to the enemy”. We are seeing the giving of aid and comfort to the enemy running wild in this war on terror and sadly not only among liberals and their media but also among some conservatives who some of them are right here on this great Free Republic.
When Al Qaeda terrorists, or the terrorist regimes in Iran and Syria, or the Iraqi insurgent terrorists whether they are Sunnis or Shia hear the speeches of defeatism coming from liberals and their media, or unfortunately coming from some conservatives who some of them are right here on Free Republic, will they feel comforted and aided by these speeches? Of course they will be comforted, and they will be embolden to fight more and more, kill more and more, destroy more and more, because they realize that many Americans do not have the will to fight a long and hard war.
Defeatism and providing aid and comfort to the enemy was something that we expected from liberals and their media because their hate to President Bush and the Republican Party is hundred of times more than their hate to the terrorists. However it is really sad that some conservatives and some members on this great forum are doing their share in providing aid and comfort to the enemy through their defeatist attitude.
Do the defeatists want to amend the Constitution so we will have the following? Stop the war and leave if we lose more than one thousand troops, or stop the war and leave if it lasts more than one year, or stop the war and leave if it costs more than 50 billions dollars, whichever comes first. Do they want to do this?
The defeatists who argue that Iraq is not part of the war on terror but rather it is just a civil war between Sunnis and Shia are wrong and naive beyond belief. Iraq is most definitely the central and most important front in the war on terror. It is in Iraq where Al Qaeda and their local Iraqi allies decided to fight the US. It is in Iraq where the islamic terrorists from all over the world are pouring in to fight the Americans. It is in Iraq where the terrorist regimes of Iran and Syria and their local Iraqi allies want to defeat the US so they can have total control of the Middle East. Since the terrorists are all over the world, then the best way to fight them is to attract them to one place to kill them. Whether it was planned or not, Iraq turned out to be the magnet that has been attracting the terrorists from all over the world, and that is the ultimate way to fight the war on terror and to kill as many terrorists as we can.
Every defeatist who is giving aid and comfort to the enemy should ask himself or herself this question: What will happen if we leave Iraq before we achieve complete victory? The First thing that will happen is that the enemy will be embolden beyond belief and the terrorists whether they are Sunnis or Shia, whether they are Al Qaeda, or Iran or Syria, will be given the ultimate victory that will embolden them thousands more time then when they were emboldened when the US left Beirut after the Marines barracks terrorist attack in 1983, or when the US left Somalia in 1993 after the terrorist killed 19 troops, or when no reprisal happened against the terrorists when they attacked many American targets through out the Clinton years. If our passiveness to the past terrorist attacks emboldened them in such a way to attack us on 9/11, think about what they can do to us if we give and leave Iraq and thus handle them the ultimate victory that they have been dreaming about for decades.
The defeatists must understand that if few terrorists sitting in a cave in Afghanistan with a small budget and few volunteers were able to do the 9/11 terrorist attacks, killed 3000 Americans, and caused over one trillion dollars in economic damages, then the terrorists control of Iraq and of the whole Middle East, and its vast oil resources will allow them to conduct terrorist attacks against us that we cannot imagine even in our worst nightmares. By controlling Iraq and the Middle East the terrorists will have hundreds of billions of dollars under their control that they will use it to attack us everywhere in the world and the US and cause unimaginable death, destruction and economic losses that will make 9/11 terrorist attacks look like a picnic in comparison. They will also use the oil weapon to bring the world economy to a disaster that will be many folds worse than that of the 1929 Depression.
Fellow Free Republic members, we are fighting the most important war since WW II. We are not fighting for the Iraqis in Iraq but we are fighting for ourselves, for our freedom and for our way of life. Let us all support our President and our brave troops because they need our support now more than ever.
Agree 100%.
The defeatists who argue that Iraq is not part of the war on terror but rather it is just a civil war between Sunnis and Shia are wrong and naive beyond belief. Iraq is most definitely the central and most important front in the war on terror.
Your screed reads like something out of the McCarthy era.
"Are you now, or have you ever been a defeatist?"
Please!
Bingo. You hit the nail on the head right there.
Great post, jveritas.
I will get that a 9 out of 10 for rhetorical flourish. No substance.
I haven't read any of the replies, but if true to form some of them will say the war is being fought incorrectly therefore we should just withdraw.
Don't let another son or daughter die for an incorrectly fought war, they scream.
Many, many "conservatives' justify their defeatism that way. But by their logic, we wouldn't have carried WWII on to victory, because that war was tragically ill-fought, resulting in hundreds of thousands of needless casualties. Because EVERY war is incorrectly fought.
EVERY BLASTED ONE OF 'EM.
Anytime :)
I don't think I've ever come across anyone here on FR who is against the POTUS new plan of more troops and new Rules of Engagement. I'd just add I wish he relaxed ROE 3 years ago!
Let our professionals do what they do best over there.
Nice post but there's nothing wrong with a debate as long as we have a good respect for one another
You are greatly underestimating Free Republic. This is the most important conservative political forum on the planet.
yep
We have people in charge who just can't bring themselves to pull the trigger on a Taliban funeral with heavily armed attendees.
[AID & COMFORT ALERT]
The WOT is lost.
Because the military is used as a policy tool to correct unwanted behavior and a discovery lab for social engineering.
Amen, my FRiend!
I am no defeatist.
I want to win.
I have always wanted to win.
But I have also always thought, since the very beginning, that to WIN a war you have to DECLARE a war, and we didn't, haven't and won't now. I think that was a monumental error, which imposed an utterly crippling handicap on ourselves from the get go.
Win?
Yes absolutely I want to win.
But I look at the strategy and tactics that have been used since we didn't declare war and embarked on these not-war interventions, and I see dramatic incompetence.
De Gaulle was called a defeatist when he railed against Maginot. But the establishment chose Maginot, and by God if you didn't march right along with the Maginot Mindset, you were a defeatist, even a traitor to France.
Or you were right.
The leadership team is incompetent.
They have organized the war incompetently and fought the war incompetently, and they are not showing any signs of improvement or changing their minds on ANY of the bad strategic decisions they made from the outset.
Happy talk about how "We are winning!" or how the Germans can't possibly get through Maginot is coupled with the sneering assertion that whoever says we are NOT winning, and that the GErmans CAN roll Maginot is a "defeatist", even a traitor.
No. No and no again.
We cannot win this war the way we are fighting it.
We have made stupid blunders, strategic and tactical since the very beginning, when we didn't DECLARE war.
The leadership are stubborn and determined to do it THEIR WAY, even though THEIR WAY is a disaster and will not get better. "Surge"? With a handful of troops? It's silly.
Refusing to take sides, still, is sillier still.
It was not defeatist for De Gaulle to look at the Maginot Plan and say "We will be destroyed." It was honest. It was factual. It was the truth.
If we continue on the present course in Iraq, we will lose.
That is honest. It is the truth.
I don't LIKE that truth, but I am no defeatest for calling a spade a spade.
Want to win? Then take the side of the Shi'ite Arabists in the South, arm them (the government) and let them wipe out all Sunni resistance in the South and win the civil war. And arm the Kurds in the North as a counterpoise. Favor the government Shi'ite faction and give IT the arms and support so that IT, in its own self-interested lust for power, can face the Shi'ite militias.
And start bombing convoys and camps inside of Iran and Syria.
And unleash special forces to wreak havoc in Iran.
And deny it. Say it's the protest movement. Make the Iranians have to go into overdrive to defend their own turf.
Ignore the Syrians and Iranians screams at the UN about our violating their territory to hammer camps and supply trains. Just lay the law on the table.
Surge a lot more troops, assert your C-in-C power, and let Congress try to impeach you if they dare.
And SHUT UP about Iraq's government "doing it wrong" in the hanging of Hussein. What a pathetic milquetoast performance by W.
That's how you win.
We won't do that, and won't win.
Suspect your stress level decreased considerably after posting this?
It's time to call them and show our repulsion. The RNC and Chuck Hagel are top on my list. I think that Nebraska ought to recall Hagel.
you misunderstood my writing...You are ,of course, correct.Free Republic is unparralled,period.
That is why dems took screen names and post here is disruptive ways,which was my point
Iraq is but stepping stone to Iran, Syria and the Autonomous Tribal regions of Western Pakistan.
This focus on Iraq is like driving a car by only looking at the first 10 feet of road off the front bumper instead of the full road ahead.
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