Posted on 09/25/2003 7:54:01 PM PDT by Burkeman1
George, here's what to do in Iraq: Declare victory and bring the troops home.
A senator from Vermont once suggested such a policy during the Vietnam War. It would have meant a defeat. In this case, it might mean chaos, at least for a while, unless you can get more international help.
You asked for help from the U.N. That was good. Get back to them and say, "We're serious. We're on a fast track to leave."
To America's soldiers, you can say: "You're fighters, not social workers. The fighting's done, excellent work, and you can start going home."
Thousands of American families will thank you.
To the American people, you can say: "We've changed our minds about the occupation of Iraq. We'll need only part of that $87 billion I asked for. The rest you can keep."
Watch your poll numbers go up.
The warrior intellectuals — the neoconservatives — will bellow. Let them. They don't have any electoral votes. The American people never bought their "neo-Wilsonian" fantasies of empire. Asserting American dominance was never your argument for war. You said Americans had to depose Saddam Hussein in order to protect themselves.
That's done.
Our occupation of Iraq is not yet six months old and already Iraqis are making sure that we tire of it. This will not tend to get better. An antiwar feeling has arisen in the United States, and Howard Dean, a nobody from a small state, has ridden it to the head of the pack. Dean says he wouldn't have gone to war in the first place. Few notice that Dean also says we ought to stay in Iraq to do nation-building.
"Well, Howard," you can say, "I'm bringing the troops home. If you're elected, you can send them back."
Would America be giving up if we did that? We would be giving up the right to reconstruct Iraq our way. We would not be giving up anything the average American cares about.
Certainly, the American people would accept a change in policy. They have accepted the official story from the start — the weapons of mass destruction, the "link" between Saddam and bin Laden, the "Woman Warrior" story about Pvt. Jessica Lynch. They are not paying much attention to Iraq. They will accept a pullout.
Consider the alternative: Five years of occupation. Maybe 10. Bombs, demonstrations, dead Americans.
Think of the Democrats. In 2002 you beat them by offering to save America from a foreign threat. If you do that in 2004, you're going to be in trouble. Americans get tired of wars that drag on and on, and tend to toss out the political party that does the dragging. Look up the election of 1952. Also 1968. Ask your dad about the political shelf-life of military victory. It is less than one year.
Think of the economy. Business has been terrible since you became president. The people have been pretty forgiving about that. They know the dot-com bust was not your doing (nor Clinton's, really). You have given the people a tax cut, and Alan Greenspan has given them rock-bottom interest rates. In normal times, these would produce a snapping recovery. But war sits on business confidence like a fat man on a dog.
Your war, a Republican war, of which the politically profitable part is over. We are now in the losing part. The occupation of Iraq could drag on well past November 2004.
But you can forestall that. Lean on the U.N. for troops. Lean on the Egyptians; they owe us a favor or two for the billions we've doled out to them. Speed up the creation of an Iraqi government. You don't need to wait for elections. That's Iraq's business.
Then you can announce that most of the troops will be home by Christmas and you will not be needing all of that $87 billion.
Watch Wall Street jump. The dollar, too.
Nobody expects you to do this. It will shock your friends, but what's more, it will confound your enemies. It will also steer the Republican Party back toward that nationalistic but "humble" foreign policy you described three years ago, which best suits the interests, and the patience, of those who might vote for you in 2004.
Bruce Ramsey's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is bramsey@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company
So we should just give up?? I'm mangling this quote right now, but all it takes to let evil succeed is for good men to stand by and do nothing. Letting people destroy their own people is wrong and that is exactly what Saddam was doing. I suppose you would have been against WWII as well?
Your brother just follows orders as he swore an oath to do no matter who is President. If Clinton sent him on some Bullchip war to cover up his latest domestic scandal he would have done it even if he didn't like it or agree with it. Because that is what he swore to do- serve the Executive and this Countries CNC no matter the reason
You are right about that, but what you must understand is that not only is he serving in this war, but he believes in it. And so do I.
The only trouble is that it is sometimes difficult to seperate those who truly love their country and think we are on the wrong course in a war to those who have always hated their country and wish it's destruction.
I don't assume you hate America. I assume that I completely disagree with your ideal of what America is. The Bible says "to whom much is given, much is required." The U.S. is the greatest country on the face of this earth, thanks to the grace of God. He has given us much. In that role, we have an obligation to help fellow man, be he Muslim, Jew or anything else. We are doing our duty in Iraq, as well as fighting an enormous evil in this world. And I do stand by my statement that to fight the evil in it's own court is far better than to sit by and wait 'til it comes here.
And that is why President Bush tells us this is going to be a very long war.
Your tag line, Burkeman1, tells us that we don't need to worry about evil until it gets to us. The evil of terrorism has been killing Americans since the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut on October 23, 1983. That one evil that finally gets to us has been getting to us for nearly 2 decades.
Don't you think it's about time we stopped turning the other cheek? Isn't it time we did something about it? Huh?
Nice liberal garabge. You must miss Bill Clinton too.
Careful, someone might get mad that we AMERICANS might gloat! LOL!
Wild Thing
Memorable,digusting thread. John Galt ,pinged by Burkeman1, spews his on the next to last page,if not before....#32 by Burkeman began my journey with these types. Burkeman ordered me not to post to him again. (Why me?)
Disgusting
Oh, what thread was it, JG got insulting and I slammed him for it to which he responded that his insults were okay because they were 'hyperbole, charm, and wit'.
It was a trhead much like this one, and I don't have a habit of bookmarking stuff like that.
*chuckle*
Guess I should start.
This guy is a seditious piece of shiite. We are in the middle of war and this bottomfeeder does nothing but "give aid and comfort to the enemy." Sedition should be removed from the Dictionary, because no more does it have any meaning.
I saved a Freepmail is how I got the title...I also saved Burkeman's freepmail from another thread that I threatened to expose and had JR come on the thread and say NO NO!(I have no clue how to publish freepmail,I just wanted it stopped.)..I saved it to remind me that Burkeman is insane.LOL!..I wonder if John Galt is a plant sometimes.
Wouldn't doubt it.
Seems he and his close buddies/possible alter egos all have the same statements about the same things.
So he/they may be plants of one kind or another.
I still liked being in a discussion early on at the start of this whole thing with Iraq about Ricin, and got told that it isn't a WMD.
That was a frustrating thread.
Remember that most here despise Burkeman1. He is nothing but a liberal who calls himself a "real" conservative. No surpise he is from Assachusetts. Your brother is a better man than that wimpy turd could ever hope to be.
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