though the 'target audience' needs expansion. LOL!
Posted on 11/05/2004 5:44:17 AM PST by OESY
John Kerry and most of the major media tried to make President Bush's handling of Iraq the issue this election year. They lost big. Despite the dicey security situation there and a constant drumbeat of bad news, American voters showed steadier nerves and more common sense than critics who tried to portray every setback as evidence of "criminal incompetence."...
We can hardly expect to win the counterinsurgency so long as Iraqis have more reason to fear the consequences of working with us than those of working against us.
To their credit, both President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi appear to understand this now and to have concluded that the April pullback in Fallujah was a mistake. The task of reasserting control in the Sunni Triangle began early last month, when combined U.S.-Iraqi forces took Samarra to the north of Baghdad....
Signs are that this may be about to change. The Marines have had a cordon around Fallujah for a couple weeks now, and U.S. warplanes and artillery have been striking insurgent positions. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that American and Iraqi troops will be able to take the city, and with minimal loss of life on the coalition side. But if the coming battle rages for more than a few days, political fissures could erupt in the interim government....
We hope Messrs. Bush and Allawi understand that this would be the worst of all possible outcomes -- worse even than no offensive at all given the morale supercharge it would mean for the enemy. Anything less than total victory would also mean no nationwide elections for the foreseeable future.
In short, what's needed in Iraq right now is neither strategic nor tactical genius but simple resolve....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
That makes sense to me. What does a newspaper editorial board know about this sort of thing? They can comment on strategy maybe, at the global level, but not tactical stuff. Just my own ign'nant two cents.
Yes. Keep the politicians out of it and let the troops finish this job this time.
They were pulled back (by politics) at least 3 times in the last year.
Let them finish, or we will have a problem for the next decade.
Don't do a 'Clinton does Somolia, then tucks and runs'.
George W. Bush is very pragmatic. He was well aware that a major military offensive in Fallujah prior to the U.S. elections would expose him to the Mainstream Media's impossible (and corrupt) standards. If we had attacked a month ago and killed 10,000 insurgents, while six Iraqi civilians were killed, along with two American soldiers, the press would have had full-scale coverage of the funerals of the innocents and wall-to-wall interviews of the family and friends of the fallen heroes. The stabilizing effect on the war would barely get a mention. Now, freed from these unfair constraints, Bush is ready to unleash the dogs of war.
This is another example from the BEST newspaper in the country. You can subscribe on line for much less than the paper version, and you then have no paper to lug off for recycling, and you can save clippings on your hard drive.
WSJ is the greatest!
Also, You would have read news reports and watched news casts showing those 10,000 insurgents (terrorists in my mind) were actually little children and women according to doctors at the local hospital!
I get so sick of AP and Reuters reports from Iraq.
I agree. Regretfully, timing of the Ba'athist Triangle siege was critical, given we were in an election campaign. CBS, the Times and other MSM were looking for any excuse to sink Bush's ship. No matter if the outcome was wildly successful, they would have denied Bush all credit.
Love it!
That was excellent!
Not Britney Spears again. :)
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