Iraq is battlefield for war vs. terror

Chicago Sun Times ^ | August 24, 2003 | Mark Steyn

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

I know there are many groups and individuals pushing their jihads, but there are far more groups and individuals fed up with the nitwit jihadists and fighting back - most particularly the far more powerful COALITION of the willing.

Contrary to the left-press daily lies, we are suffering very few casualties in Iraq. Most of the nation IS stabilized. We are taking out the bad guys in numbers daily. We are winning.

It has been 5 SHORT months since our troops marched toward Baghdad. The press continues to be their biggest stumbling block - not the terrorists, the Fedayeen or the common criminals....the PRESS.

The left-press wants Bush to lose, and the UN to win...damn the longsuffering Iraqis who are working beside us, facing enemies that murdered their loved ones. The left-press spits on the troops - ignores their daily successes and hypes every problem - and endangers their lives by also giving our enemies a false sense of hope for a future they do not have in Iraq. The left-press ignores the genocidal history of the Husseins and the neglect and destruction of Iraq under SADDAM that WE are fixing today.

It's all about power for the left-press - and with the left, religion, as we know it, is irrelevant.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

When Jesse Helms retired, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee became a pro-UN, anti-American body. The press, of course, sides with the UN.

Our Generals not only have to conduct a war and be concerned with every troop on the ground, they have to beg the likes of Joe Biden for money enough to do it. NO thanks from most of OUR Senators for the awesome work this military - from the CIC down - is doing. No, they seem to prefer the NY Times or Newsweek version of events. Read the transcript and fume on behalf of our military.

We need to be far more vigilant of those holding the purse strings and effecting international relations.

[MEG33]

I agree about the madrassas and the teaching of hate.The hijackers on 911,however, were educated,middle class and had travelled.It is the hatred in their cult that burns in their souls.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

BS, caltrop. Sorry. Not according to those actually DOING the work inside Iraq. Not according to the Iraqi people.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

He's amazing, isn't he? He knows this is serious and that the games of the left are threatening the civilized world.

[GOPJ]

Impotent whining and endlessly pleading our pathetic case? We're acting like a powerless partner in a bad marriage, not a moral and just superpower.

Let's dump the martyr stance and do what's right. If we're going to be condemned, let's be condemned for something worthwhile. The world respects power. Iraq needs to be given an American style constitution -- freedom of religion, free speech, the whole ball of wax. For those too shy to believe it's OK to impose a moral and decent systme on an oppressed people, we can leave in ten years. Leave and let the Iraqis dump any parts of the constitution they don't want. ( my guess: they'll keep most of it).

This is the weirdly uneven playing field on which the great game is now fought. Islamic terrorism is militarily weak but ideologically confident. The West is militarily strong but ideologically insecure. We don't really believe we can win, not in the long run.

[GOPJ]

Impotent whining and endlessly pleading our pathetic case? We're acting like a powerless partner in a bad marriage, not a moral and just superpower.

Let's dump the martyr stance and do what's right. If we're going to be condemned, let's be condemned for something worthwhile. The world respects power. Iraq needs to be given an American style constitution -- freedom of religion, free speech, the whole ball of wax.

For those too shy to believe it's OK to impose a moral and decent systme on an oppressed people, we can leave in ten years. Leave and let the Iraqis dump any parts of the constitution they don't want. ( my guess: they'll keep most of it).

This is the weirdly uneven playing field on which the great game is now fought. Islamic terrorism is militarily weak but ideologically confident. The West is militarily strong but ideologically insecure. We don't really believe we can win, not in the long run.

[American in Israel]

The Islamic Empire is destroying its bravest and most foolish men at the same time. Geneticly they are culling the herd and producing a more generic form of sheeple. Hero's are the great statesmen of a culture. By killing off their heros for the media, Islam is destroying any hope for a future.

You see the same effect in the Palestinian political party, quick to rage and dance for the camaras, but no opposing answers. You can also see it in the fact that they produce no exportable product. The best has been culled a long time ago, all that is left is raging dunderheads, easy to make dance, but producing nothing either.

Japan sealed its fate in world war II when it burned its pilots for kamakazis, then when the fleets got close to the mainland, they had no defenses. They had destroyed their own airforce. They could make more planes, but had no experienced pilots left to fly them.

Islam is in its death throws, but then as the West abandons its moral base and turns to socialism it is a race to the finish after all.

Who will self destruct first?

[lainde]

Thanks for the ping!

[American in Israel]

Unfortunately, while I obviously agree with some of your characterizations, I can't agree with you on the Iraq situation. By occupying Iraq, we've agrravated all the conditions we should have been attempting to mitigate.

You do not mitigate a man coming for you with a gun, you stop him or die. There is the problem with the liberal idea of trying to negotiate a peace with a man who is willing to blow himself up to kill you. After dozens and dozens of city buses blown up, and very few military targets hit, one realizes that the enemy is not brave and cowardly at the same time, he is cowardly and foolish at the same time.

Liberals are the foolish cowards on our side, and their ideas are no less suicidal.

[windchime]

"He's amazing, isn't he?"

Always!

While looking for a picture of Shanab to jog my daughter's memory of which Hamas mouthpiece he was, I found a site that reminded me of you. It seems to deal primarily with Israeli news, but they're fighting the same battle with accuracy in media that we are. Link is:

http://camera.org/

[maica]

The left-press ignores the genocidal history of the Husseins and the neglect and destruction of Iraq under SADDAM that WE are fixing today.

When is the last time any of the press or any of the "war is not the answer" crowd,have mentioned the "5000 Iraqi children dying every month because of the UN sanctions?"

I think the US chould take credit for halting this 'slaughter,' and just give a great big raspberry to the naysayers.

[happygrl]

Well said.

Thanks for all the good news you provide.

[Huck]

By occupying Iraq, we've agrravated all the conditions we should have been attempting to mitigate... We've further intervened in the Middle East even beyond our taking sides in the Israeli - Palestinian War...additional fuel for increased terrorism... if it turns out badly (likely in my view) we'll have further encouraged our adversaries... this outcome would turn the neocons' triumph in suckering us into Iraq into what would be, from their standpoint, a disaster.

Hey Chris, don't you have some work to do getting ready for tonight's Hardball?

[caltrop]

I had no desire to negotiate with Saddam, I'd have ignored him. The Saudis, Iranians, Turks, etc. were capable of keeping him in his box. Saddam was no threat to the US.

The bombings in Israel, which I presume you're referring to, are a separate issue. Unlike the Iranians, which we know send arms to the Palestinians, Saddam only paid the suicide bombers' families $25,000 for each bombing. By Arab standards, that support of the Israeli-Palestinian War is (I think) pretty modest.

The War in Iraq is, IMHO, a fool's errand. Even if we'd been able to win it in a day at absolutely no cost it would have been a mistake. The problems we're seeing in Iraq were all predictable and are only the tip of the iceberg. If we can get the UN to take this tarbaby off our hands we should do so, regardless of the terms the UN seeks. The sooner we leave, the better.

[WaterDragon]

The Western socialist nations, which is about all of them except America, despise us because they've waited, disappointedly, for us to fail as they've predicted for two hundred years. So, they now believe the Muslim terrorists are just the ticket to finally do us in, and they'll help!

They figure that once America falls, they'll handle the Muslims just fine because Muslims after all are very backward people, not like the brilliant, sophisticated Europeans!

This is how their thinking goes. The stupes will go under if we don't save ourselves, and in the process them, too....again!

[Moose4]

Beautiful article.

Once more, for those in the back of the classroom...

The terrorist leaders watch CNN and the BBC and, understandably, they conclude that in Iraq America, Britain and all the rest will do what most people do when they run up against someone deranged: back out of the room slowly.

They're wrong. There's no choice. You kill it here, or the next generation of suicide bombers will be on buses in Rotterdam, Manchester, Lyons, and blowing up the UN building in Manhattan. This is the battlefield.

}:-)4