Posted on 07/08/2009 10:29:10 PM PDT by smoothsailing
July 09, 2009
On October 23, 1983 the Marine Corps Battalion Landing Team (BLT) building located at the Beirut International Airport was blown up. Two hundred twenty Marines, 18 Sailors and 3 Soldiers were killed in a split second by a suicide bomber. I wasn't there at the time. I was participating in Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. I was a squadron CH-46E helicopter co-pilot in Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 261 (HMM-261) and also the squadron classified materials officer. Being the one who set up the squadron classified messages, I read about it before most others. It was an unbelievable gut punch and breathtaking in a bad way.
"We will close with and engage the enemy at a time and place of our choosing."
"Before Bush invaded, there was no al Qaeda in Iraq."
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/07/why_im_thankful_for_george_w_b.html at July 09, 2009 - 01:19:05 AM EDT
Iran committed several acts of war against the US dating back to the 70’s. That Bush did nothing was just par for the course.
“It was genius and anyone in the United States who thought it only meant Saddam Hussein were rope-a-doped along with the new enemy. The American rope-a-dopers whose occupation it was to destroy George W Bush, unknowingly helped severely weaken the most difficult enemy faced by any state or alliance in human history.
Now how did we win and cripple for life this new enemy? Using their ideology against them, we lured them into a location in which we could engage them using our superior capabilities on a battlefield with which we were quite familiar.
This enemy is a worldwide cancer and occupies not merely Afghanistan (an extremely difficult theater to say the least) but also the entire globe.
It would have been impossible to go to several nations, cross their sovereign borders, find the terrorist hideouts then close with and engage them.
Imagine the worldwide hair lighting on fire had that happened. It was bad enough when yellow cake was hidden by glasses of mint tea in Niger from one of the Bush hating torches.
Barney Frank would have gone straight, found his false teeth, worn them and lit his hair on fire if we invaded several nations.
We didn’t.
We drew them into Iraq and we killed them there.
Simple and genius.”
~~~~
Brilliant, wonderful article ... rightfully giving our intrepid and focused President Bush the credit he deserves!!
President Bush’s courageous pursuit of this strategy with our awesome military is the pioneering groundwork of this totally new asymmetric battleground and is reflected in the transformation of today’s military machine.
Leftist pettiness would never allow them to call it that, but that is exactly what it is patterned after, General Petraeus."
Bush called Iran part of the “Axis of Evil” which was a big deal from all the attacks he took for saying it. What Bush would have done further is unknown do to events that unfolded early in his presidency.
Without the frenzied tantrums and obstruction of his domestic enemies in and out of government, there's no telling what more he could have achieved.
Thanks for posting “The Leader”, STARWISE. There’s much truth in those words.
“President George W. Bush ordered on Thursday a freeze on the U.S. assets of anyone Washington deems to be undermining Lebanon’s pro-Western government.
The Bush administration did not identify those targeted by the decree, but it comes just a month after he imposed a U.S. travel ban on Syrian officials and Lebanese politicians whom the United States accuses of fomenting instability in Lebanon.
The State Department said that Iranian interests could also be affected by Bush’s latest order.
*snip*
Bush’s order said the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the secretary of state, would designate those whose U.S. property and business interests would be frozen.
“Certainly Iran and Syria are the principle sponsors, I would say, of both efforts to undermine the government in Lebanon and efforts to promote militia violence ... and the other things we’ve talked about in Iraq,” State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.
“So to the extent that those countries are engaged in supporting those kinds of negative activities, then, yes, it’s very much directed against them and their unhelpful efforts.”
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02250077.htm
My pleasure. Breaks my heart to see
the lengths to which the despicable
libs and other enemies from within and
even FReepers go to deliberately demean,
distort, lie about, minimize and sully
the incredible job this good and gutsy
man did, especially in keeping us free
from attacks for nearly 8 years, against
all odds,
Thanks again!
Bush called Iran something, ok he’s off the hook.
Thanks so much for posting this. But I thought Bush talked about ‘time and place of our choosing’ in his address at the National Cathedral on Sept 14, 2001?
After listening to anti-Bush, anti-war garbage for a while, in very simple, non-military terms (having no military experience whatsoever) I would explain to liberal suburban parents in particular that what Bush did in Iraq was using the “soccermoms strategy.” At team picnics to avoid yellowjackets, soccermoms place a cup of apple juice at a table somewhat removed from their own. It attracts all the yellowjackets to that one location, and leaves their people alone. Sometimes the comparable strategery would sink in. Sometimes not.
I guess General Franks was quoting him or Ken Russell misremembered ! Either way the strategery makes sense. :)
BTW, I like your yellowjacket analogy.
You’re correct .. Pres. Bush said that ... thought Gen. Franks may have repeated it.
~~~~
“War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01”
http://www.rightwingnews.com/quotes/bushquotes.php
FYI, you missed the point of the commentary.
...a time and place of our choosing.
RWN’s Favorite George W. Bush Quotes
by John Hawkins
http://www.rightwingnews.com/quotes/bushquotes.php
“When I take action, I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.” — George W. Bush, 9/13/01
*
“We are not at war with the Afghani people, and we are not at war with Islam, which most Americans respect as a religion of peace.” — George W. Bush, 9/16/01
*
“(T)here’s an old poster out West, I recall, that says, ‘Wanted: Dead or Alive.” — George W. Bush on Bin Laden, 9/17/01
*
“I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!” — George W. Bush from the wreckage of the WTC
*
“The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“These terrorists...we have seen their kind before. They’re the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“We will direct every resource at our command — every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war — to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“Some will remember an image of a fire or story or rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever. And I will carry this. It is the police shield of a man named George Howard who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. It is my reminder of lives that ended and a task that does not end.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
“I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.” — George W. Bush, 9/20/01
*
“Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocence, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril.” — From George W. Bush’s speech announcing that attacks on Afghanistan had begun
*
“We’ve seen their kind before. The terrorists are the heirs to fascism. They have the same wield of power, the same disdain for the individual, the same mad global ambitions. And they will be dealt with in just the same way. Like all fascists, the terrorists can not be appeased. They must be defeated.
This struggle will not end in a truce or a treaty. It will end in victory for the United States, our friends and for the cause of freedom.” — George W. Bush, Pearl Harbor Day 2001
*
“Today at Pearl Harbor, veterans are gathering to pay tribute to the young men they remember who never escaped the sunken ships. And over the years, some Pearl Harbor veterans have made a last request.
They ask that their ashes be brought down and placed inside the USS Arizona. After the long lives given them, they wanted to rest besides the best men they ever knew. Such loyalty and love remain the greatest strength of the United States Navy.” — George W. Bush, Pearl Harbor Day 2001
*
“States like (Iraq, Iran, & North Korea), and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” — George W. Bush, SOTU Speech, 1/29/02
*
“And you all also may remember that early on, I said if you hide a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you provide comfort to a terrorist, you’re just as guilty as the terrorist. The Taliban now knows what we mean. They’re gone. And, guess what? People in Afghanistan don’t miss them one bit.” — George W. Bush rallies the troops in Alaska on 2/16/02
*
“The best way to encourage economic vitality and growth is to let people keep their own money.When you spend your own money, somebody’s got to manufacture that which you’re spending it on. You see, more money in the private sector circulating makes it more likely that our economy will grow. And, incredibly enough, some want to take away part of those tax cuts.
They’ve been reading the wrong textbook. You don’t raise somebody’s taxes in the middle of a recession. You trust people with their own money. And, by the way, that money isn’t the government’s money; it’s the people’s money.” — George W. Bush rallies the troops in Alaska on 2/16/02
*
“...(O)ne thing that the world can count on is that we will not allow Israel to be crushed.” — George W. Bush, 4/26/02
*
“America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” — George W. Bush, 10/07/02
*
“As Americans, we want peace — we work and sacrifice for peace. But there can be no peace if our security depends on the will and whims of a ruthless and aggressive dictator. I’m not willing to stake one American life on trusting Saddam Hussein.” — George W. Bush, 10/07/02
*
“In addition to declaring and destroying all of its weapons of mass destruction, Iraq must end its support for terrorism. It must cease the persecution of its civilian population. It must stop all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food program. And it must release or account for all Gulf War personnel, including an American pilot, whose fate is still unknown.
By taking these steps, and only by taking these steps, the Iraqi regime has an opportunity to avoid conflict. These steps would also change the nature of the Iraqi regime itself. America hopes the regime will make that choice.” — George W. Bush, 10/07/02
*
“Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike?” — George W. Bush, SOTU Speech, 1/28/03
*
“Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice. There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don’t understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring ‘em on.” — George W. Bush, 7/02/03
*
“We have learned that terrorist attacks are not caused by the use of strength; they are invited by the perception of weakness. And the surest way to avoid attacks on our own people is to engage the enemy where he lives and plans. We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.” — George W. Bush, 9/07/03
*
“I know that some people question if America is really in a war at all. They view terrorism more as a crime — a problem to be solved mainly with law enforcement and indictments. After the World Trade Center was first attacked in 1993, some of the guilty were indicted, tried, convicted, and sent to prison.
But the matter was not settled. The terrorists were still training and plotting in other nations, and drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of September 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States — and war is what they got.” — George W. Bush, SOTU Speech, 1/20/04
*
“America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country.” — George W. Bush, 1/20/04
~~~
Leadership. Contrast that with the today’s White House.
We were blessed.
-Bush had a plan to get Osama out of terror camps in Afghanistan before 9/11.
-Got NATO into Afghanistan.
-Challenged much the UN to the fullest and then dropped them.
-Killed Saddam and his sons and grandson thereby ending 100 years of continued troubles from them in the Middle East.
-Made clear to the world that Iran is on notice as part of the “Axis of Evil”.
And every step of the way being battled against by the democrats and their press.
But you want to blame him don't you, for something...
Sometimes I felt like Edith Bunker during the “W” years. He’d say something, like these quotes, and the media would freak or laugh, and I’d be sitting there like Edith....”What? That makes perfect sense to me. What did they hear/read that I didn’t?” Finaly I grew up and stopped asking the stupid question (the question of the Stupids).
It was just the “Meathead & Gloria” media, heads too far up someplace to be helpful. And many conservative pundit “Archies” got the specifics but got the gist of this all wrong as well. Like “W” said - read about it in 50 years if we still have libraries and the written word.
It was a strategery? I was told Bush got Iraq, a peace loving happy place, confused with some other foreign sounding country...
WIsh I knew him
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