Posted on 07/18/2003 6:20:52 PM PDT by PhiKapMom
Countdown to Victory '04 is Free Republic's daily action center for the grassroots campaign to re-elect Bush-Cheney in 2004 -- the place to visit to find out the latest from the campaign and how you can help!
Today's Links are All taken from the Republican National Committee Team Leaders Email that was sent to Team Leaders this afternoon from Incoming Chairman and RNC Analyst Ed Gillespie. The Operation Air Conditioner was Linked in this RNC Email!
July 18, 2003
Dear Sharon,
For years the world has agreed that Saddam Hussein possessed and used weapons of mass destruction and repeatedly defied the world's demands to disarm. Now, leading Democrats are trying to raise money and score political points by denying this universal claim and attacking our president.
Howard Dean and the DNC have fundraised by raising questions about the war with Iraq, but consider what these same Democrats have said in the past;
Bob Graham who just this week tried to score political points by calling for the President's impeachment said months ago "We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." (Face The Nation, 12/08/02)
John Kerry who complained there were insufficient resources for our soldiers in Iraq, voted to slash $2.6 billion in intelligence funding and at least $50 billion in defense spending (and that's just scratching the surface). President Bush made his intentions clear yesterday, " The Prime Minister and I have no greater responsibility than to protect the lives and security of the people we serve. The regime of Saddam Hussein was a grave and growing threat. Given Saddam's history of violence and aggression, it would have been reckless to place our trust in his sanity or his restraint. As long as I hold this office, I will never risk the lives of American citizens by assuming the goodwill of dangerous enemies."
Sincerely,
Ed Gillespie
Senior Advisor
Republican National Committee
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This Week's Action Alert - Call Talk Radio
Important Talking Point Papers
Why Saddam Hussein Was a Grave and Gathering Danger
September 11 crystallized how vulnerable we are to terror, and showed what our enemies are willing and able to do. President Bush promised the American people that he would not stand idly while dangers gathered abroad. Saddam Hussein's regime was a grave and gathering threat that the U.S. and our allies could not afford to ignore because it:
*Possessed and used weapons of mass destruction, and was known to be pursuing chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs.
* Saddam Hussein's regime used weapons of mass destruction against Iraqi civilians in Halabja in 1988, and against the Iranian army in the 1980s.
*The Iraqi regime failed to account for at least 30,000 liters of biological agents (including anthrax, botulinum toxin, and aflatoxin), 3.9 tons of the nerve agent VX, nearly 30,000 empty munitions that could be filled with chemical agents, 550 artillery shells filled with mustard agents, and over 6,000 chemical aerial bombs.
*Saddam maintained a cadre of nuclear scientists that he called his "nuclear Mujahadeen," and aggressively and covertly sought to acquire equipment necessary to manufacture gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment. After the Gulf War in 1991, we discovered that Saddam Hussein was several years closer to developing a nuclear weapon than our intelligence experts predicted.
Repeatedly defied the will of the international community that it abandon its weapons of mass destruction program and submit to U.N. weapons inspections.
* Iraq defied 17 United Nations Security Council resolutions over a 12-year period. Iraq repeatedly defied and deceived international weapons inspectors. The semi-annual weapons updates provided by Iraq to Dr. Blix contained over 600 instances of missing or incomplete data on chemical, biological, and missile related imports, and Iraq was cited for willful attempts to hide growth media that could be used to produce biological agents.
Sponsored and harbored known terrorists and terrorist groups.
* Iraq stoked terrorism and instigated violence in Palestinian territories, paying the families of suicide bombers $25,000 for attacking innocent civilians.
*Iraq harbored the notorious Abu Nidal, whose terror organization carried out more than 90 terrorist attacks in 20 countries that killed or injured nearly 900 people, including 12 Americans; and Abu Abbas, who was responsible for seizing the Achille Lauro and killing an American passenger.
* Iraq harbored Musab al-Zarqawi, a known associate of Usama Bin Laden who directed an al-Qaida training camp in eastern Afghanistan until late 2001. Zarqawi directed poisons/toxins lab in northeast Iraq alongside the radical Ansar al-Islam group, and his terror cell was responsible for assassinating an American foreign aid worker in 2002.
Represented a potentially devastating nexus of weapons of mass destruction and terror organizations that could have had threatened millions of civilians in the region and at home.
* With its weapons program and known support for terrorism, Saddam's regime could have secretly passed the world's deadliest weapons to terrorists. From information obtained in Afghanistan, the United States knew that Al-Qaida was aggressively seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction.
Was one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in the world, which practiced ethnic cleansing, used chemical weapons on its own citizens, and committed numerous atrocities. * Saddam's ethnic cleansing campaign displaced some 700,000 people throughout Iraq and destroyed more than 2,000 Kurdish villages.
* The Iraqi regime had more forced disappearance cases than any other country in the world.
We are only beginning to uncover the truth about the Iraqi regime. Over the last four months, U.S. and coalition forces, human rights groups, and Iraqi citizens themselves have found:
*Mobile chemical and biological labs of the kind described in Secretary Powell's presentation to the United Nations.
* Nuclear arms materials, including documents and components of a gas centrifuge used for uranium enrichment, hidden in the garden of an Iraqi nuclear scientist.
* Mass graves of thousands who were slaughtered by the regime.
* More than seven miles worth of documents that are being analyzed to provide a fuller picture of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program.
Security Fact Sheet And Talking Points
Excerpts from Tony Blair Speech to Congress
* September 11th was not an isolated event but a tragic prologue, Iraq another act, and many further struggles will be set upon this stage before it's over.
* The risk is that terrorism and states developing weapons of mass destruction come together, and when people say that risk is fanciful, I say we know the Taliban supported Al Qaeda. We know Iraq, under Saddam, gave haven to and supported terrorists.
* Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing: If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that, at it's least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive.
* But if our critics are wrong, if we are right, as I believe with every fiber of instinct and conviction I have that we are, and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership. That is something history will not forgive.
Talking Points * The President committed to fighting the war on terrorism so that he would never again have to visit a pile of rubble in one of our cities.
* The war on terrorism is on going. It cannot pause; it will not stop because Democrats are attacking the President.
* The President is taking the fight to the terrorists BEFORE they bring the fight back to us he would rather eliminate the threat in Baghdad than clean it up in Boston. He would rather fight terrorists in Kabul than Kansas City.
* The ongoing war today is for America's safety today and tomorrow, the safety of our children and generations to follow.
*Howard Deans political and fundraising success based on his anti-war rhetoric created a rhetorical feeding frenzy among Democrats hoping to gain favor with their political base. Democrats are relying on anti-war rhetoric- including calling the President a liar as the pillar of their political and fundraising strategy.
* After 9-11 Democrats charged the administration with failing to connect the dots. Now they are suggesting the dots aren't even real.
* Democrats may see short-term benefit in attacking the President but they are unwilling or unable to recognize the overwhelming evidence presented over a decade from the world community and many of the same Democrats who are now playing politics.
Operation: "Air Conditioner"
Sending Air Conditioners to the Troops in Iraq! Learn More Here
| A Recall AND a Fundraiser? I'm toast. |
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| Let's get this over with FAST. Please contribute! |
Please stop by the linked website from RNC for Operation Air Conditioner where you will find a list of items that our Troops need in Iraq!
Have a wonderful and safe weekend!
PKM and Friends!
My pleasure.
Big bump!
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