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The War's Realists
Washington Post ^ | 7/12/05 | E. J. Dionne Jr.

Posted on 07/12/2005 6:16:07 PM PDT by Crackingham

"We're fighting the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the world so we do not have to face them here at home."

That's what President Bush said in his speech yesterday at the FBI Academy in Quantico. After the attacks on Britain, our closest ally in the war on terrorism, it is an astonishing thing to say. "It's a very insensitive statement with regard to the British," said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.). "Tony Blair must absolutely have blanched when he heard that."

What does Bush's statement mean? Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Fran Townsend, the president's homeland security adviser, said that the war in Iraq attracts terrorists "where we have a fighting military and a coalition that can take them on and not have the sort of civilian casualties that you saw in London."

Huh? If British troops fighting in Iraq did not stop the terrorists from striking London, then what is the logic for believing that American troops fighting in Iraq will stop terrorists from striking our country again? Intelligence reports -- and Townsend's own words -- suggest that Iraq has become a terrorist breeding ground since the American invasion. How, exactly, has that made us safer?

It is time for a policy on terrorism that is based on more than ideology and the rote incantations the president has been offering for four years. The horror in London should force intelligent politicians to ask fundamental questions: What will it take to achieve success in Iraq? And how should our homeland security policy be adjusted to make the United States safer?

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: defeatist; ejdionne; garbage; leftist; moonbat

1 posted on 07/12/2005 6:16:07 PM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham

Levin is a Leftist Loonie!


2 posted on 07/12/2005 6:20:10 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country. What else needs to be said?)
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To: Crackingham

Blah blah blah more blather from Dionne.


3 posted on 07/12/2005 6:20:19 PM PDT by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Spec.4 Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: Crackingham

What total crap.


4 posted on 07/12/2005 6:21:43 PM PDT by SIDENET ("You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred")
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To: Crackingham
Iraq has become a terrorist breeding ground since the American invasion

This is the new leftist mantra, just the latest variation on the blame the victim mentality. The London suicide bombers were apparently Pakistani immigrants who grew up in Leeds. There's no indication they were ever in Iraq. But facts have never impinged on leftist argumentation.

5 posted on 07/12/2005 6:23:09 PM PDT by Argus
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To: Graybeard58

So is Levin endorsing racial profiling and deporting Muslims?


6 posted on 07/12/2005 6:23:18 PM PDT by wildcatf4f3 (whats wrong with a draft?)
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To: Crackingham

So how were we breeding the well-to-do Saudi terrorists who struck the Twin Towers? Man, the press is just one big broken record. You would think even THEY would get sick of it after awhile.


7 posted on 07/12/2005 6:26:06 PM PDT by speedy
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To: speedy

All one has to do anymore is see where the story comes from and dismiss it. NYSlimes, Wash Past, LASlimes. It's easy, you'll never get an unbiased story out of these cowards.


8 posted on 07/12/2005 6:30:04 PM PDT by Jazzman1
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To: Jazzman1

Does anyone still read the Washington Post?


9 posted on 07/12/2005 6:34:50 PM PDT by ReadyNow
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To: Jazzman1

Between those papers, and our immigration issue, I wonder if the much-maligned Alien and Sedition Acts were such bad things after all.


10 posted on 07/12/2005 6:35:36 PM PDT by speedy
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To: wildcatf4f3

"So is Levin endorsing racial profiling and deporting Muslims?"

In post WWII Germany, the allied forces conducted de-nazification," of every German citizen.

That is right. They screened everybody, searching for loyalties to nazism.

Britain has memory of this process, so shouldn't find it difficult to brush off the procedures manuals, and go to work.

Small potatos to screen only 2 million muslims residing in the UK, compared to many more millions of German citizens back in the late 1940s.


11 posted on 07/12/2005 6:37:24 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: truth_seeker
Small potatos to screen only 2 million muslims residing in the UK, compared to many more millions of German citizens back in the late 1940s.

The Beeb and The Guardian aren't gonna like that!

12 posted on 07/12/2005 6:43:46 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
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To: Crackingham
If British troops fighting in Iraq did not stop the terrorists from striking London, then what is the logic for believing that American troops fighting in Iraq will stop terrorists from striking our country again?

He didn't say that it would, and in fact this is only a distortion by anti-Bush zealots who are eager to set the bar so high we cannot possibly succeed in Iraq. In fact, the strategy of engaging jihadists in Iraq does not guarantee anything except that dead ones there won't turn up live over here. It does guarantee that.

Should it turn out as it has been suggested that London's terrorists were domestic products I don't think we'll be hearing an apology from Mr. Levin.

13 posted on 07/12/2005 6:46:02 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Crackingham
Because if we are not killing and capturing thousands of terrorists in Iraq we would have seen much more terrorists attacks in the West, including the USA. Got it you idiots on the left, I doubt it you do get it because you are blinded by hate toward President Bush and yes because you are dumb as well.
14 posted on 07/12/2005 6:50:02 PM PDT by jveritas (The left cannot win a national election ever again and never will the Buchananites and 3rd parties)
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To: Crackingham

How does fighting terrorists in Iraq stop sleeper cells in America and Canada from attacking America?


15 posted on 07/12/2005 6:52:29 PM PDT by Blzbba (For a man who does not know to which port he is sailing, no wind is favorable - Seneca)
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To: Crackingham
"We're fighting the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan and across the world so we do not have to face them here at home."

Bush has been saying that for a long time and way before the London attacks.

Nobody can deny that it is better to fight them abroad than at home. But, the U.S. has been fighting the terrorists at home as witnessed by the corralling of some sleeper cells and the regulations/laws passed to stop airliner hyjackings. And then, there is the number enemy of the left, the Partiot Act.

Most other countries would like to pretend that terrorism doesn't affect them and that it is only a problem for the big, bad U.S. to worry about. A lot of those countries haven't done much to combat terrorists either at home or abroad and in many cases have done nothing more than to appease and encourage the terrorists. Their attitude is that if they don't anger the terrorists, the terrorists won't target them. Their time will come, if not in the near future, then in the long run.

Bush is 100% correct about fighting the terrorists abroad. The countries in Europe and the rest of the world would be smart to adopt the same policies and attitude.
16 posted on 07/12/2005 7:08:13 PM PDT by adorno (The democrats are the best recruiting tool the terrorists could ever have.)
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To: Crackingham

Or, to quote the President in the past, "bring 'em on." Does any thinking person really doubt the long term benefits of killing thousands of would be terrorists in Iraq? Or really wonder why we haven't seriously tried to close Iraq's borders? It's obviously a lot easier to let them throw themselves on our pikes than try to ferret them out in their lairs in neighboring countries.


17 posted on 07/12/2005 7:18:09 PM PDT by Growler
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To: Crackingham

Blair is probably mad because while he's helping fight them in Iraq and Afghanistan, he forgot to take care of his home grown Radical Muslim problem.


18 posted on 07/12/2005 7:28:39 PM PDT by tobyhill (The War on Terrorism is not for the weak.)
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To: ReadyNow

I buy the Sunday edition of the Washington comPost only to line the bottom of my bird's cage.

I only have to spend 25 cents every month and a half.


19 posted on 07/12/2005 8:31:57 PM PDT by gogogodzilla (Raaargh! Raaargh! Crush, Stomp!)
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