Finally - Someone With Some Sense
Reading all the bullcrap that has been thrown up in our faces about "pulling out of Iraq" has been very depressing. At last, someone with a little common sense - Jared Kellar has a blog called
Exultate Justi and he says:
In my opinion, speaking as a non-American, I support everything the US is trying to do. Forget for a minute that some will say this is a war all about oil. That is a load of crap! This war is about the continuance of western civilization against a collection of crazed muslims intent on eliminating any and all that do not follow their religion. It's just that simple.
This whole anti-war movement is a direct assault on George Bush. If anyone else had been president when 9/11 took place whether it be Democrat, Republican, or whatever else, then the movement would never had begun. George Bush is paying for the sins of being the son of a past president who never finished the job when he had the chance to do so.
Wanna win this war? George should step down and let someone else take over. As quick as the US gets a president not from Texas, all this dissent will disappear and the military can get on with their job.
the US military saves lifes too
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Not to put too fine a point on matters, but we in the United States are in mortal danger. Obviously, there are those in the world who would like (and plan on attempting) to kill us, but this threat is not the one to which I'm referring. We are quickly becoming our own worst enemies. We've held this title in one way or another, in one area or another, for quite some time now. The one area that has seemingly been exempt from these tendencies, however, has traditionally been that of our national security, and, indeed, our national survival. Such is no longer the case, it would seem. Iraq. The very word now draws up such contentious and bitter emotions among the American public that its every utterance seems to represent an argument in and of itself. We are a nation divided, in many ways, and, if the polls are to be believed, we a re a nation that is rapidly losing faith with an Administration that barely four years ago, rallied the battered and beaten national psyche with aplomb, and fired the first vollies in response to the atroticies of 9/11. Many in the country - including no small number of political leaders - see our action in Iraq as a detriment to the nation's well-being. We hear, everyday, more and more comparisons between this war, and that fought by our fathers and grandfathers in Southeast Asia four decades past. We are led to believe that we are engaged in a "quagmire", and that our men and women in uniform are being sacrificed upon an altar of ultimate futility. This message is resonating. And yet, there is still hope to be found. There is a strong, rock-ribbed undercurrent of support for the war, and for our nation's overall strategy in combatting Islamic terrorism. There is, in certain circles, an almost reflexive anger regarding the notion that we should even consider the notion of a pullout; the matters of timetables and incrementalism bring about rage within those who operate here. Why, then, have so many people abandoned the cause? It would be disingenuous, of course, to assert that all such feelings spring from illegitimate concerns. We have sacrificed more than 2,000 of our finest upon the proverbial altar of freedom, and yet the terorists continue their bloody work, cutting swaths of death and agony through crowds of men, women, and children - be they soldier or civilian, American or Iraqi. There have been the difficulties, roadblocks, and gratingly knotty problems that spring uniquely from regions where national borders have been artificially imposed upon tribal structures, and where totalitarian regimes have built an entire culture upon no more than fear. The reasons for the increasing public distaste for the war in Iraq are complex, and they are numerous. In the final analysis, however, one might do well to ascribe the bulk of them to a simple truth: those of us who have supported (and continue to support) the war - particularly those in political leadership - have ceded the ground of perception, and have allowed those who oppose the war - for any reason - to implant within the public consciousness an unstated assumption regarding both our progress, and our prospects for overall victory. That assumption, of course, does find its voice in any number of more radical demonstrations and protest efforts, where speaker after speaker refers to the war as a "disaster", "quagmire", "lost cause", or even "mistake". Through this constant assertion - that the war is effectively lost - those in opposition to the war have succeeded in engendering a degree of frustration and resignation that is utterly unearned. Somehow, a position that is certainly assailable - that the war is going badly, and that we're "bogged down" - has been transformed in many peoples' minds into a settled matter. In this way, of course, one can find similarities between the Vietnam and Iraqi conflicts; just as in 1968, the North Vietnamese - with the assistance of the American press - managed to turn the defeat of the Tet offensive into a mammoth political and perceptual victory, the terrorists of Qaedat al-Jihad fi Bilad ar-Rafidain are attempting to draw for a largely complascent and short-sighted US population a picture of an Iraqi civilian population turned against the American "occupiers". A major portion for this dramatic shift likely comes from the fact that the Bush Administration, until recently, has not seen fit to emphasize the crucial nature of the struggle in which we currently find ourselves involved, or two present in clear terms the strategic criticality of a democratic Iraq in the greater war on Islamic totalitarianism. There is no shortage of voices who are trying to make these arguments, and to present the philosophical and strategic ramifications of defeat. Some include: former US military commanders - We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the...question - What does losing mean?- Gen. Vernon Chong, USAF (Ret.)Opinion columnists - A Shiite political leader with a good chance of becoming prime minister after next month's elections, Mahdi brought to Washington a familiar complaint: that the U.S. media and their audience focus exclusively on the bad news, ignoring Iraq's "tremendous achievements." Turnout was high in Iraq's first election, higher for its constitutional referendum and will be higher still, he said, in the December vote -- all despite death threats to anyone who votes. In the face of terror, Iraq's progress toward democracy is unprecedented in the Middle East.- Fred Hiatt, The Washington PostFormer Ba'ath Party members - If the Left succeeds in their attempts to get the U.S. to withdraw you would see a wave of global terrorism that would put 9/11 in the scope of a failed suicide bombing. If anyone here thinks that defeating the Soviet Union in Afghanistan emboldened the terrorists imagine them being able to take over an oil rich nation such as Iraq, in the heart of the Middle East and having the ability to run on the platform of defeating the sole super power of the world. Iran as well as other government who openly support terrorism would cut off oil supplied, disrupt the world economy and provide them with WMD's. There is no doubt in my mind of this or the Iraqis in the streets of Baghdad today.- Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti - AKA "The Butcher of Basra"And even the terrorists themselves, who, again, are more than forthcoming with their plans and goals, if we'll only take them at their word - "We do not fight for a fistful of dust or illusory boundaries drawn by 'Sikes-Picot'. We are not fighting so that a Western evil would replace an Arab evil. Ours is a higher and more sublime fight. We are fighting so that Allah’s word becomes supreme and religion is all for Allah. Anyone who opposes this goal or stands in the way of this aim is our enemy and will be a target for our swords, regardless of their name or lineage - a Muslim American is our dear brother: an infidel Arab is our hated enemy, even if we both come from the same womb...We have revived the jurisprudence of our good ancestors in fighting heretics and enforcing Allah's law on them. Jihad will be continuous, and will not distinguish between Western infidels or heretic Arabs until the rule of caliphate is restored or we die in the process."- Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Qaedat al-Jihad fi Bilad ar-Rafidain (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers)There is a case to be made for this war. It is, in fact, an easy case to make, if one is merely willing to invest the effort. Valid and worthwhile though it may be, the case will not make itself. It lies with the Bush Administration to come out swinging, and with the members of the House and the Senate still in possession of spines to once more engage with the American people, grab the capitulators in our legislature by their lapels, and show some leadership, some vision, and some semblance of realism regarding the incalculable importance of victory in Iraq, and in in the broader war. The stakes are simply too high for any other course, and the philosophical battlefield has been vacant for far too long. Oh, and that segment of the population still "in the fight", so to speak? Those among us who most passionately and persuasively defend our actions, and the value of our mission? Our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. It is those who are literally on the front lines; those who every day face the challenges, the glories, the agonies, and the victories that make up life on the ground in a messy, chaotic, but evolving democracy, who most clamor for our support, and for the continued determination of a roused America to not just go about a mission, but to achieve victory. Surely, we owe them at least this much. |
In my opinion, speaking as a non-American, I support everything the US is trying to do. Forget for a minute that some will say this is a war all about oil. That is a load of crap! This war is about the continuance of western civilization against a collection of crazed muslims intent on eliminating any and all that do not follow their religion. It's just that simple.
This whole anti-war movement is a direct assault on George Bush. If anyone else had been president when 9/11 took place whether it be Democrat, Republican, or whatever else, then the movement would never had begun. George Bush is paying for the sins of being the son of a past president who never finished the job when he had the chance to do so.
Wanna win this war? George should step down and let someone else take over. As quick as the US gets a president not from Texas, all this dissent will disappear and the military can get on with their job.
It's Just That Simple !
the US military saves lifes too