Cheney: A Free Iraq Important to Winning War, Inaction Leaves U.S. Vulnerable (MUST READ)

Bush-Cheney '04 ^ | October 10, 2003 | Vice President Richard B. Cheney

[PhiKapMom]

Please distribute this speech to anyone you know who doubts this Administration has gone on the offensive against the lack of positive news out of Iraq by the mainstram (?) media and the attacks by the democRATs especially those running for President!

[PhiKapMom]

This speech by Vice President Cheney needs to be sent to your local newspapers and talk radio outlets as it gives the facts that the United States has accomplished to date in Iraq and on the War on Terrorism!

If you would like on or off this Bush-Cheney '04 ping list, please let me know!

Thanks!

[Support Free Republic]

Got a minute?

I'd really like you to rub my ears,
or help out FR.

[MeekOneGOP]

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[PMCarey]

You read a speech like this and you hear a rational, coherent complete vision. You listened to the nine Democratics candidates you hear sound bites whose sum total amounts to fuzz.

[xzins]

THE GOOD NEWS COMING OUT OF IRAQ FROM OUR TROOPS!

excerpts from another thread

It looks as if we've reached the point where we are finally starting to see the media reporting some of the good news coming out of Iraq. I'm not sure whether this is a product of the heated criticisms leveled at U.S. news organizations in recent weeks by everyone from pundits to members of Congress returning from Iraq, or whether it's that our progress there has reached the point where it's become simply undeniable. Perhaps it's a combination of the two.

In my opinion we're still nowhere near receiving truly balanced coverage of the situation in Iraq, but it's fair to recognize that we are starting to see examples of more balanced coverage in some of the major papers (See here and here).

Today's USAT offers another one:

Return of power brightens Iraqis Tensions dim as electricity output rises By César G. Soriano USA TODAY

BAGHDAD -- Power is back.

For the first time since Baghdad fell April 9, the capital city and most of the country have enjoyed four straight days without a significant outage.

Coalition officials are optimistic they can keep the lights on because sabotage and looting has dropped and electricity output is near prewar levels. Cooling temperatures have also helped.

''The power situation has not been this good since before the Kuwait war,'' says security guard Majid Abdul Reza, 27. Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.

I don't know about you, but reading these few short paragraphs gives me an immediate boost of optimism and pride about what we're doing in Iraq. Can you imagine what public perceptions of Iraq would be if we were to get this sort of news on a regular basis instead of the constant parade of doom and gloom?

One of the unfortunate reasons we haven't seen more stories like this in the press over the last six months is that most news organizations don't view positive developments in Iraq to be "hard news" stories at all but instead see them as "cheerleading" for the Bush administration.

Like the New York Times, for example, which can spare only this tiny positive mention (and grudgingly at that) in their 963 word report on the six month anniversary of Saddam's fall:

The changes are visible. The streets are cleaner. Shops are flooded with goods pouring into Iraq now that the borders are open again. Those who have jobs — and tens of thousands are working for the Americans, directly or indirectly — are largely paid better than they were.

Now go take a quick look at the round up of our accomplishments in Iraq that Andrew Sullivan has put together. Night is day and day is night.

Millions of people around the country who continue to get their news from a few mainstream sources (a group of people whose numbers are thankfully decreasing) are not getting the full picture of what's going on in Iraq. They don't fully realize - and consequently don't feel a sense pride over - the things we're accomplishing in Iraq. That's a true shame. But maybe things are changing.

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED: FROM ANDREW SULLIVAN.COM a



Six months ago there were no police on duty in Iraq.

· Today there are over 40,000 police on duty, nearly 7,000 here in Baghdad alone.
· Last night Coalition Forces and Iraqi police conducted 1,731 joint patrols.
· Today nearly all of Iraq’s 400 courts are functioning.
· Today, for the first time in over a generation, the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
· On Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts—exceeding the pre-war average.
· Today all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
· Many of you know that we announced our plan to rehabilitate one thousand schools by the time school started—well, by October 1 we had actually rehabbed over 1,500.

Six months ago teachers were paid as little as $5.33 per month.

· Today teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
· Today we have increased public health spending to over 26 times what it was under Saddam.
· Today all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
· Today doctors’ salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
· Pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
· Since liberation we have administered over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq’s many children.





THE VOICE OF A SOLDIER: This in an amazing op-ed in yesterday's Austin-American Statesman:

After I returned from Bosnia, I visited the "museum" at Dachau. I saw the rebuilt barracks and new barbed wire, the meticulously restored crematoria and killing grounds. I knelt there in a field that had been used to dump the ashes of the victims of the Holocaust, and lit a candle for the souls who suffered there. I cried and prayed there, remembering what had been done, and thought upon the words "never again." Somehow the thought of it made me cry more, because I couldn't stop thinking about how long it took us to decide to stop the madness in Bosnia. How no one even tried to stop the killings in Cambodia, Kurdish Iraq and the Sudan. How we walked away from Somalia after the tragic sacrifice of American soldiers fighting to build a better world. It occurred to me how much we have forgotten and how empty those brave words had become.

We cannot save the world by ourselves. We cannot stop all the genocides and massacres. We cannot make sure that "never again" becomes a fulfilled promise rather than a hope. But we can return a little meaning to those words, stop some killings and end some suffering. I hope we do, and I would be proud to serve again in Iraq to do so.

But I won't expect those who call for "peace" to help me.

Nope, the pacifists and anti-war crowd are on the side of the tyrants - now as so often before.
- 12:15:04 AM

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

It was a forceful speech. Just what we needed. Thanks for posting it, PKM. Saw it was up at WP, linked from Heritage. Ignored it, being WP. Knew you'd come through. (^;

We must never forget the kind of man who ran that country, and the depravity of his regime.

VP Cheney not faltering or failing, ping! His great speech was carried on FoxNews and C-Span 2 today (at least).

 Thanks, Tonkin!

If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).

[blackie]

Vice President Dick Cheney ~ Bump!

[onyx]

Mainstream (anti-Bush) media neglects to trumpet the truth and ignores the reality that if we do not fight the terrorists in Iraq, we will surely have to fight them on our own soil.

[Egon]

Excellent. Thanks!

[Saundra Duffy]

My husband and I watched the speech this morning, first on FOX, and then on C-Span after FOX left. We were cheering and screaming RIGHT ON! Go, Cheney!!

[Semper Paratus]

You listened to the nine Democratics candidates you hear sound bites whose sum total amounts to fuzz.

If any of them were President we would still be in negotiations with the Taliban.

[MEG33]

News and views from this side of the ocean.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

FYI PING

[boxerblues]

bump for later

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

EXCELLENT read. Why people CANNOT get this, is beyond both of us.

COMMON SENSE BUMP!!

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

BOOKMARKED AND BUMPED TO THE TOP!!

Thanks for posting this. We should also be e-mailing this article to every friend or acquaintance we have who is "also" starting to buy the LIBERAL media and democratic hype (crap) about us having done THE RIGHT THING.

We did, and we must not falter or fail.

We used to understand that you cannot negotiate with terrorists. We used to understand that you responded to acts of terrorism swiftly and with great resolve. We stopped thinking that way and it got us 9-11. The Democrats and liberal media seem to think we should wait until 30,000 of our citizens are dead. Our Commander in Chief and our troops think different. We stand on their side.

[PhiKapMom]

VP Cheney's speech was great! My youngest daughter, who is on her way to OU/Texas in Dallas now (no classes at OU today), came out of her bedroom to see what was going on as I was cheering and clapping! She sat down and finished watching the speech clapping right along.

Just makes you feel really good to know he is the VP!

[PhiKapMom]

Wasn't about to get it from the WP -- I figured Bush-Cheney '04 would put it up right away! My own mini boycott of the liberal press!

Glad to see the Administration go on the offensive about Iraq!