Posted on 08/09/2003 8:36:00 AM PDT by Sparta
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:36:56 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Good morning. Friday of this week was the 100th day since the end of major combat operations in Iraq. For America and our coalition partners, these have been 100 days of steady progress and decisive action against the last hold-outs of the former regime. And for the people of Iraq, this has been a period like none other in the country's history, a time of change and rising hopes after decades of tyranny.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
To those parents whose kids are over there, and for those whose loved ones have paid the ultimate price:
Your loved one is doing an honorable thing. Although thugs can take their life, they can never stain the honor of what you son or daughte was part of building --- freedom and hope for a long-enslaved people.
May your grief be relieved just a bit by knowing that they honorable served their country AND that what they were accomplishing was worthy of the highest praise, honor, and respect.
Support the troops! Support them by pointing to their honorable, positive accomplishments!
Xzins
Chaplain (Ret.) US Army
I wonder if folks realize the magnitude of this accomplishment. It's a stunning accomplishment. It's also (in addition to offing the enemies within) a huge priority for all involved. The sooner these people have their stream of revenue up and running, the sooner we can get outta there.
Dream on.
And you really think that "stream of revenue" will go to -- or should go to -- the people of Iraq?
It's one thing to claim we're making Iraq a model of democracy in the Arab world, quite another to make it happen, even if the hated Baathists were obliterated along with the foreign terrorists.
But under which economic model would the oil revenues be shared among all the Iraqis, as is now being proposed? Capitalist or socialist? (You know Americans have a whole lot of expertise in distributing wealth, as demonstrated by the progressive income tax, death tax, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, etc. Oh -- sorry, that's wealth redistribution. My mistake.) And which system leaves the country poorer and more susceptible to political corruption as practiced by the deposed Hussein regime?
No, there will be American troops in Iraq regardless of how many barrels of oil are produced. They will stay until the next war begins, or longer.
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August 9, 200
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I am not a "sad-sack," nor an "I-told-you-so" type.
I am a realist.
Nation-building, which George W Bush spoke against only three years ago, is not and should not be America's major foreign-policy objective, especially when such nation-building leans so heavily leftward in its economics one could easily confuse the current regime with the old one minus the shredders.
Restoring the Iraqi infrastructure which has been neglected since at least the Gulf War and probably longer is properly the responsibility of private interests, not the US Army.
And certainly not Halliburton, Brown & Root or other "contractors" to the DoD who will be taking no risk but enjoying guaranteed profits, thanks to American taxpayers' generosity.
If we wish to make an example of Iraq, why not make it a capitalist example? What is the foreign-policy advantage in following the socialist model when we are presumably trying to bring about a transformation to western-style government?
Is it so we can tell the rest of the world, "See, we're not trying to build an empire. We let Iraq continue on its socialist path, and even helped them along on their journey to hell."
A realist could hardly conclude that there is no difference between Iraq after 100 days except the shredders. Rather reminds me of stuff coming out of Michael Moore.
That was not my conlusion, only that the economics are very much the same. Did the President indicate who owns the re-opened banks in his address? Or what is going to back the new currency that will be issued? The dollar? Hardly.
If my comments remind you of Michael Moore, you really need to pay better attention.
Credit to Eternal Vigilance for this pic on the USO Canteen (#117):
The Fruit of the Resolute
"Great victories come only to those who never waver
No matter how loudly the enemies of freedom may mock
Who see the path of duty, and follow it to the very end
God bless our President on this day
He will be known forever as 'the Liberator of Iraq'!"
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