Bush Answers Critics of Iraq War! (Bush fights back!)

AP | 8/23/05

[SoFloFreeper]

DONNELLY, Idaho (AP) -- President Bush has rapped sharp critics of his Iraq war policy, saying they advocate a position that would weaken the United States.

[ClancyJ]

Right. No one thought Reagan had any chance with that demand of Russia.

That is why I hold onto my patience in Iraq. We may be watching a major move in the Middle East that is in accordance with the Lord's plans. It is sure worth a try since nothing else ever worked.

And, who are we to say if a battle is not completed in X months, it is not a worthy battle?

Some things take more time than we wish. The actual removal of Saddam was super fast - but do you ever hear that mentioned anymore? No. So just how important is speed anyway?

War is war and you stay until the job is done or all is a total waste. If you give up that quick, you indeed wasted the lives of those that were sent as apparently the outcome of winning was actually not all that important or you would not give up.

[ClancyJ]

I imagine that George Bush, Rumsfeld and the generals will fully know when victory is achieved and will get the heck out of there.

No where does it say that I or you have to make the decision of when the war is over? Do you think it comes to a vote? Don't remember a stinkin' vote for the end of World War II.

And, no where does it say that a mother of a dead soldier assumes the power of directing an American war and determining how troops are allocated. And no where does it state that she is entitled to multiple personal sessions with the President of the United States to give him a piece of her mind.

No, seems we elect our leaders to lead the country and their time is spent running our government, directing our wars, and protecting our country. And, in doing so, due to the exhaustion of the job, our leaders earn vacation time to spend for restoration of their energies - same as all American workers.

I also do not remember claims that the public can demand our time while we are on vacation to listen to their complaints about events on our job or that the public gets to demand what actions we take in our job.

[ClancyJ]

Just why does he need to say why?

Can you not understand what would happen if he pulled up troops and left?

He would prove that America is only a Paper Tiger and the terrorists would be emboldened. He would prove our word means nothing, he would prove that the battle really was not needed or he would have completed the job.

Yet, if you need to be hand fed some little reason, just wait awhile, listen to the news from Iraq (not from the MSM), look at the events in the world, and maybe it will come to you.

The main thing - it is a lot safer on America to fight all terrorists over there. All can come on over and forget having to sneak into our country. We are ready for them there and it would not be a surprise attack.

[GraniteStateConservative]

And, no where does it say that a mother of a dead soldier assumes the power of directing an American war and determining how troops are allocated. And no where does it state that she is entitled to multiple personal sessions with the President of the United States to give him a piece of her mind.

Cindy's a nut. When did I bring her up?

[GraniteStateConservative]

The flag in the background is almost identical to the one that flew every day of Saddam's tenure as Iraq's despot. You'd think that such a flag would be burned and pissed on and buried never to be seen again. It wasn't, though. That says something about the Iraqis and how they feel about the Ba'athist revolution.

I did not defend Saddam's rule at all. I have no idea why you suggested that. I was only saying that the Iraqis don't view that period of their history as wholly worth forgetting, because they allow this flag to fly today.

[daybreakcoming]

is almost identical

So you do realize the Iraqi flag has been modified since the fall of Sadaam.
The basic flag with the tri-colors and stars representing unity of Iraq, Egypt, and a 3rd Arab country (can't remember which) was in existence well before Sadaam's time.

[freema]

"Funny, if Cindy Sheehan did this in Iraq about four years ago, Saddam would have pulled her apart limb by limb after having her raped and her eyes gouged out right after she watched her entire family get slaughtered."

Not funny, it's been done- here, and now, by the Left.

[oceanview]

all I can say is - the "stay the course" folks on this thread should listen to Cols Hunt and Cowan on OReilly tonight. Laying out alot of the military issues there very specifically, calling for changes and firing of some generals. they support the military, they just want some changes - and so do I.

[ohioWfan]

No one ever said that there shouldn't be any changes, or adjustments.

There have been a series of changes since this war began (as there are in any war), as adjustments are made to the wiles of this enemy.

All I'm saying is that it is the height of presumption to sit at a computer and claim you know more about what should be done than the military commanders in theatre...........or even saying it on O'Reilly.

[Sam Cree]

"Just why does he need to say why?

"...Can you not understand what would happen if he pulled up troops and left?

...He would prove that America is only a Paper Tiger and the terrorists would be emboldened."

I understand well enough that cutting and running would hand a great victory to Islamic terror. It would not only put the rest of the world in danger, it would seriesly destabilize the entire Middle East. Pulling out is unthinkable in my view.

Also in my view, we are in Iraq as part of an effort to eradicate Islamic terror. Or at least I hope we are. Seems like a worthwhile cause, one the president might address publicly.

The Left, which includes the media, academia, Hollywood and the Democratic Party are all over the place, extremely and constantly visible, making their case and doing it convincingly, not to me, but apparently to many. Therefore, the president needs to get focused and make his case. Taking the citizens for granted doesn't cut it. Neither do platitudes about democracy.

[Sam Cree]

I didn't see the program...would it be too much to ask for a brief recap of what Hunt and Cowan said in calling for changes? Much obliged.

[oceanview]

post #4 and below:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1469315/posts

[Sam Cree]

Gracias.

[GermanBusiness]

[I wonder if he thinks pullouts from wars are ever a good idea]

This is why I left a great job in New England in 2002 to live in Europe. Not even the "conservatives" in New England "get it" regarding this war.

[GermanBusiness]

At least conservatives in Europe "get it" regarding Iraq and, because the European media is not harping about Iraq (and not covering the Bitch in the Ditch story), I would say a majority of people in Europe are happy that Iraq is going to be a democracy.

I would take Spain or Italy over New Hampshire (the socalled "Granite State") any day in terms of meeting conservative people who have a "granite" backbone and admire George Bush and want to stand up for what is right in this war.

America is in an unhealthy obsession of "debating" what should be regarded all around as a genuine plus. We have not been attacked since 9-11. We took the war to the enemy and they are busy losing to us there. What more of a *plus* do you want?? Why even a debate? Because old-style conservativism was isolationist? Sorry. Old style conservatism can be found mainly at MoveOn.org.

The Iraq War lasted 3 weeks. Since then, it has been just a campaign by our enemies in Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia to enlist traitorous Americans as their allies by killing our soldiers not to gain territory or even accomplish anything in Iraq itself...but to demoralize us and therefore keep us from ever overthrowing them themselves.

But we will overthrow those enemies for having spent the past 2 years killing our soldiers. We will do so despite the opposite of "Granite State Conservatives." I just don't know what the plan is. Will we use secret indigenous armies? Do we have moles in place? I don't know.

Meanwhile, it just doesn't make sense that so many Rhinos in the Blue States AGREE with the leftists on this war. To me it is like they have no spine. They had no spine in the early 70s and gave the country to the leftists (while giving future enemies like Bin Laden a reason to believe we can be defeated with 7 years of effort in killing American troops), and now they are willingly giving places like New Hampshire and Wisconsin over to leftist hegemony, while signalling to our enemies that they can easily defeat "Granite State Conservatives" by killing American soldiers after they win a 3 week war in the future.

Our troops need to be in Iraq now because they need to finish training the Iraqi Army and or be moving into Iran and Syria soon.

[FreeManInVegas]

Well we have to soon.

[GermanBusiness]

One has to remember that we won the Vietnam War strategically by changing China's foreign policy. We didn't "pullout" so much as leave after a victory. It was the MSM that called it a "pullout". People in New England are so incredibly gullible where the media is concerned.

Think about everything you ever "learned" and then ask yourself if it was the MSM that taught that to you. Then think again.

Repeat after me: "There was no pullout from Vietnam. We left after we victoriously achieved a genuine peace treaty." And I am not being sarcastic. Liberals would like for you to believe that is a sarcastic statement because they couldn't bear to acknowledge that it is actually true.

The way a Democratic Congress betrayed our friends in Indochina AFTERWARDS was a war-crime. More than 2 million people were killed when we withheld funding for the anti-communists there.

Reasons for the Iraq War:

1) Geographical crossroads to the Middle East and Eurasia. Needed to become a democracy with crisscrossing highways going everywhere. We need to have Europeans driving to India and driving to China along "Highway 5" through Iraq and Iran. We need hotel chains along that highway and the kids in the backseat need to see "Waterworld: next exit 15 miles." And I am serious. A prosperous society similar to ours in some of the basics is not a society that will nuke us when we are not looking some September morning.

We do need to have everyone in the world, especially trucks with products in them, traveling freely along Iraqi highways at least on the way to somewhere else.

2) Put the Shiites into power in the Middle East after having been sidelined for 1000 years. This would kill off Sunni political Islam faster than otherwise.

3) Stop the Libyan weapons program funded by Saddam.

4) Put all of the Middle East oil into pro-American hands so no funding goes to terrorists. Duh!!

5) Implement Flypaper Strategy of pretending that we are in a quagmire so we can urge 300,000 young idiots to come to Iraq to die (because we really have the place a lot more under control than the media is saying.

Maybe the MSM is knowingly helping us (at the executive level) by giving anti-American arabs incentive to go to Iraq to die. We might find out in 10 years that MSM executives worked with Bush to deliberately create a "quagmire" effect as part of the strategy to drain the swamp of the Middle East outside of Iraq, by drawing the swamp water into Iraq.

Maybe Cindy Sheehan is unknowingly fulfilling the role of the Pied Piper...leading would-be insurgents to try to kill more "mother's sons" when, in actuality, our Marines are waiting for these "arab heroes" right across the border. So pipe on Cindy. Motivate those bad guys right into the muzzles of American weapons.

[GermanBusiness]

Let us look at the progress in Iraq on each of the 5 main reasons for going to war:

1) Europeans and Indians and Persians are NOT yet driving through Iraq on the way to anywhere yet. Truck transport between China and Germany does not chose to drive through Iraq and Iran. This is because IRAN is blocking progress and supporting the insurgency in Iraq. Iran needs to be liberated next, so as to create the economic conditions for that region becoming the rich trade crossroads it used to be when it was the cradle of civilization.

If Syria wants the future superhighway to go through their territory, they will need to get their act together or it will go through Turkey.

2) The Libyan nuke program was put out of business and we reaped an intelligence bonanza on WMDs by liberating Iraq. Many of the people we caught are not being talked about because they are working with us to catch others (and being given Swiss hideaways for their efforts).

3) At least Iraq's oil is in non-terrorist hands. I cannot believe that Iranian, Venezuelan and Saudi oil is still in the hands of people whom we may not be able to trust. But having Iraqi and Canadian oil makes it easier for us to leverage our other enemies.

4) We are not being told how well the Flypaper Strategy is going. A general said last month that we killed 50,000 bad guys in the past six months. But then he was hushed up. I can see why it would have to be kept secret if we were really killing thousands of young men as they crossed the border of Iraq to fight us. The liberals would scream that we were being "unfair" or "war criminals who were killing laborers who were sneaking across the border to Iraq in order to find a job."

5) The Shiites are obviously in control of Iraq because the Sunnis now have to try to use politics (and a large voter turnout) in order to "defeat" them in an upcoming free election that hinges on three provinces. The Sunni leaders are now recruiting everyone possible to vote (when they were doing the opposite in January).

Leftists and "Granite State Conservatives" don't see the beautiful irony in today's news. The Iraqi constitution may be "defeated" when the Sunnis turn out in record numbers at the polls in three provinces of Iraq.

That is right: "record numbers of Sunnis at the polls in Iraq" means that more Sunnis will vote in this democratic election than ever before in 6000 years of history.

Iraq will have Red States and Blue States.

And the media is making that look like we are "losing."

And maybe they are right but for a different reason. Should Iraq become as schizoid as Red/Blue America?

The media is making this democratic election (referendum) look like it "will set us back" in terms of our reasons for going into Iraq in the first place. Really??

The Sunnis of Iraq will "defeat Bush at the polls" in a democratic election. Of course. That means that Bush was wrong. :-(

[GermanBusiness]

Basically, the situation in Iraq now regarding the terrorists who hate democracy is as follows:

"Heads we win, tails you lose."

The Sunnis may delay the Iraqi Constitution in a democratic election this fall. The terrorists would be encouraging them to vote against the Constitution. But by agreeing to let people vote, the terrorists lose.

Watch the MSM. See if they understand what a 5 year old would understand regarding this upcoming election.

It is really a "Heads we win, tails you lose" situation.

But then watch the "Granite State Conservatives" agree with the MSM that "we never should have gone into Iraq".

That is right, three out of 18 provinces might not always vote the way we would like them to vote. The horror!!!

Something to do with a constitution was delayed!! Wasn't our constitution delayed as well? Aren't our amendments often killed off and/or delayed by a generation? That is the beauty of democracy. It doesn't just happen by fiat.

I'd be concerned if the Iraqis suddenly had a constitution they hadn't argued over.

[GermanBusiness]

Let's go the videotape:

The MSM in America is reporting that the Iraqis are bickering politically and preparing to try to "solve things" at the ballot box...where the "bad guys" are going to "win" when they get most of the votes in three provinces, with winning defined as more political bickering over an extended period and maybe (Heavens!) more referendums and more free elections.

The MSM in America is, apparently, trying to paint this as a "setback" for the Bush Administration??

Hint: The MSM in Europe makes this page 4 news because they know it isn't anywhere near a "setback".

The European news concentrates on Iran, by the way. There is no Cindy Sheehan to be found on TV sets here.