The Truth about the War

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 3 November 2006 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Congressman Billybob]

To regular readers of FreeRepublic, none of the points here is new. But to regular readers of the lamestream media, all these major points are new. That's why I wrote it, and put it out in print and on the net.

John / Billybob

[CWOJackson]

"I’m had as hell, and I want..."

Same thing happened to me once. I've not bought a Chevy since.

I like the rest of the post too.

[NicknamedBob]

Hear, here!

[Paloma_55]

Face it, president Bush totally miscalculated....

Yes, that is right, he miscalculated. He underestimated, he failed to understand the depth.

He just did not anticipate how low the Democrats would go to win power back.

He thought the Democrats would understand that a nation divided cannot stand.

He thought that the Democrats would put our national interests above their own petty political goals.

He had faith that the Democrats would be Americans first.

He just blew it.

He should be ashamed of how terribly he misjudged the patriotism of the Democrats.

[marktwain]

"So, what’s the difference between then and now? This time the Times is on the other side. Instead of supporting the war effort, it is cynically undermining American willingness to pursue the war to victory. The Times is not “honoring the dead.” Instead, the Times is engaging in COFFIN THUMPING to aid its political allies."

Nicely stated, John. Thanks for the post.

[Gvl_M3]

Great post. I'm going to send it to a few people I know.

[piytar]

"What is a proper apology for millions of deaths?"

Being arrested, tried, convicted, and imprisoned for life or put to death for treason would be a bare minimum...

[syriacus]

Yes. The Democratic party is our country's Achilles' heel. The Democratic party is our fatal weakness.

[Billthedrill]

It is not the case that the Democrats do not realize there's a war on. They do, they just think it's against Bush.

[pollyannaish]

Amen, Billybob, sir.

[Chieftain]

A classic, Congressman Billybob!

[patriciamary]

You are sooooo right,but my question is will the President and the Republicans ever learn!

[Chieftain]

Must read PING!

[itsahoot]

Who will deliver the apology for the Times

Heck John, they have never appologized for all that lies propaganda they printed, concerning that paradise in Russia, under Lenin/Stalin.

[Alia]

NC *Ping*

Please FRmail Constitution Day OR TaxRelief OR Alia if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[backtothestreets]

We are at war with but one enemy, Islam. Islam is not fascist, but totalitarian.

Domestic division burdens our war effort. Lacking is wisdom among our leaders to present how our enemy threatens our nation as a whole, and every individual be they conservative, liberal, Democrat, Republican, whatever race, nationality, age, gender or religion. Islam has named all America as an enemy.

Neville Chamberlain represents the dangers of a nation divided. Chamberlain, a conservative, turned a deaf ear on the beleaguered Winston Churchill, another conservative. When called upon, Churchill did not use his position to rally conservative victories, but unite his entire nation in winning the war. He placed party second to the war effort, and by so doing his party realized a rise in political fortunes.

If President Bush is correct that only a segment of Islam is our enemy, then he might be correct for neglecting Congress put at his disposal all necessary military force to defeat our enemy. If our enemy is Islam, he has elected to abandoned all-out war the likes of General Sherman waged against the South, and waged by our military forces in every war before the Korean War.

If Islam is the enemy, President Bush has misrepresented our enemy as having peaceful intents, and thus adding to the divisions within our nation. And while his religion of peace rhetoric has slowly subsided, the actions undertaken by his administration to relocate Muslims from other nations into the USA speaks to his persistence in presenting Islam as a religion of peace and forcing it into American society. Actions do speak louder than words. I have no qualms in stating all Muslims in our nation should have been either returned to their nation of origin or interned following the attacks of 9-11.

Only when leaders speak to a higher calling and express by example how Islam would trample the rights and lives of liberals right along with conservatives will our nation begin to find the sort of unity our nation relied upon in WWII.

It should be noted that conservatives, mostly Republicans similar in nature to Britain’s Chamberlain, stood in opposition to FDR in the years before we entered WWII. It took much wisdom for FDR to appoint the conservative Republican Henry Stimson as Secretary of War to help unify our political parties as Americans first and foremost against our common enemy. Stimson was a conservative in the same mold as Britain’s Churchill.

As for the war in Iraq specifically, I detested Saddam Hussein, but what have we gained by toppling a secular government headed by a dictator and replacing it with an Islamic democracy? Lest anyone forget, both Mussolini and Hitler arose within democracies. Further, when fighting Germany, our objective was not to solely defeat Nazis which delivered barely more than 30% of the vote that raised up Hitler. Our objective was to defeat the whole of Germany that made it possible for the likes of Hitler to gain power.

And as Iran threatens with nuclear ambitions, remember all, it was not the UN, nor Israel, the USA, Russia, Britain, France or China that quelled the earlier Iranian ambitions. It was Iraq that bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in 1980, and nary a voice of protested.

Will we ever trust the new Islamic government in Iraq to do likewise? I think not because they are both Islamic first and foremost. This will join them together against us so one day we will have to send another generation of young American men and women to sacrifice their lives for our nation. This destiny is promised because we failed to deliver all-out war upon our enemy.

[concentric circles]

What terrible irony. I just read the following quote from Time Magazine following the invasion, in 1943, of the Gilbert Islands.

The assault on Betio Island at Tarawa atoll resulted in more than 1,000 dead and over 2,000 wounded. The press labored, in typical fashion, over the problems and miscalculations that resulted in heavy casualties.

The criticism in print was intense, no one yet realized the toll that would be exacted by island fighting against a fortified enemy who preferred death to surrender. Yet, Americans plumbed depths of gritty determination they were seldom called to demonstrate and continued to support the military effort.

Americans understood the stakes involved then and even a writer for Time Magazine perceived the significance of those events:

"Last week some 2,000 or 3,000 United States Marines, most of them now dead or wounded, gave the nation a name to stand beside those of Concord Bridge, the Bon Homme Richard, the Alamo, Little Big Horn, and Belleau Wood. The name was Tarawa..."

Where, merciful God, has the good judgment of our publishers and broadcasters fled?

[Mr Rogers]

Very good. However, I would point out an area where the Administration has let us down: duration.

Based on refusal to increase the size of the Army, one must conclude they either really believed this was a one-two year effort, or they found it politically unacceptable to tell folks this was going to take a long time.

We have 30K troops still in Korea after 53 years. To create a reasonable democracy in Iraq (which I still believe was the BEST reason to go to war - strategically, it was brilliant), a lengthy stay will be required. Insurgencies typically take 15-20 years. Training a competent military requires training good NCOs, which requires 10 years minimum.

I wish the Administration had always said we would need to be there in some form for 10 years, and built up the Army to do so. And this is coming from a second generation US Air Force guy!

[DonnerT]

Those who refuse to see the truth now will never see it.

They will curse God and kill us insead.

[freema]

I saw an article today, "Webb stumps with big names; Allen shakes hands at cigarette plant" by AP reporters Bob Lewis and Matthew Barakat.

"'Why is it the war on terrorism seems to be fought between September and November every even-numbered year?' Obama, the son of a Kenyan immigrant, said on the campus of the predominatly black college."
"'The American people are in a serious mood now,' Obama said."
-Obama Barak, Virginia Union University November 2, 2006

I will not forget this.

For, you see, Obama doesn't realize some Americans have been at war every day for quite some time...not only during September and November every even-numbered year. Birds of a feather:
Kerry, murtha, and "Obama".