Although I agree wholeheartedly, I also believe The Bush Admin. never correctly articulated the parameters around their "we must win" goal.
Yes, we said Iraq must be strong enough to handle its own security, but that in itself is a nebuous concept, at best.
Thus, the GOP base was demoralized. I know I was.
Ironically, I believe this election will spur the Iraqi's to get their act together faster, and stop relying on the blood of US soldiers to keep their security.
Most voters, GOP included, just could not wrap their brains around the policy whereby fabulous young American soldiers were dying in Iraq due to a violent disagreement between two sects of Muslim hysteria.
The Iraq govt. must now get tough on the insurgent terrorist. If that means wiping out a few villages, then so be it.
But they must stop relying on the US soldiers to be the 'bad guys' in this mix, because all that does is turn US soldiers into targets on both sides of the Iraqi-Muslim spectrum.
There is no need to fix Iraq. It was never broke.
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Boy oh Boy....that has to be the biggest delusional post i have seen on FR for quite sometime....i gotta a good chuckle over my coffee....i'm not even going to argue my point because it would make me look like a fool.
I wish these people would read some history.
If you want to destroy your Party as the Majority Party, just attack your President from the Right when he gets elected.
We will go the way of the Federalists and Whigs very quickly.
Please. Now is not the time for bickering.
Rather, it is time for thoughful analysis.
Which is exactly what this post by NathanBedford is.
And as a 100-percent supporter of the Iraq war, and of President Bush, I thought the post had some brilliant points, many of which seem spot on if the GOP wants to re-energize itself these next two years.
But please, stop throwing vicious words.
No "one" segment of FR is to blame for Tuesday's thumpin' of the GOP.
Last night I spoke to our local Christian Coalition leader, and she relayed to me how a large percentage of her members were totally demoralized over Republican incompetance and arrogance, and they simply opted to sit out this election.
These people make up about 5-10 percent of the GOP base, and that's how much many Republican candidates lost by on Tuesday.
And these people never even heard of FreeREPUBLIC.
Well, they heard of it, but they are not posters.
I respectfully disagree. The major problem is that there were never measurable goals coming from the White House about how we would know we had won in Iraq. The goals actually articulated played into the hands of the Neo-communists by being vague and readily subject to reinterpretation. Clearly defining our objectives is the first part of a victory strategy (I view Exit strategy as defeatist), the second part is a clear assessment of our enemies, if you know who and what the opposition is this will greatly inform strategies and tactics.
Thus without a clear goal after the fall of the Baathist regime, there was no plan for what to do afterwards.
Yep, you sure did...
He wants Hillary to win! He wants Pelosi as speaker! He wants to turn it over to the Dems! I can't believe he said that! I've known he was a BircherBuchananiteDUTrollDemInfiltratorMobyStormfronter all along! Are you kidding me! Reagan hardly ever balanced the budget! Reagan didn't control the border! Reagan gave amnesty to millions of illegal aliens too! You can bet Hillary won't control the borders or balance the budget!! You can bet Pelosi won't control the borders or balance the budget! We're at war! He's supporting the terrorists!! When campaigning, President Bush never said that he wanted absolute control of the border! He's unappeasable! What a malcontent!! He's a racistxenophobantihispanicnazibigot who hates Mexicans!!! He's a secret member of Stormfront!!! He wants to turn it all over to the Democrats!!!!!! He's never been a real conservative!!! He hates Bush!! He wouldn't say any of this if he wasn't a Bush basher!!! He hates Republicans too!!! What does he want, for everyone to vote third party!!?!! Shut up, Go away!!! We don't need your support anyway!! We don't need the votes of the so-called "conservatives" that you're talking about because they're just a bunch of moronic, right-wing, extremist, fringe whacko, malcontent, unappeasable, fake conservative, democrat loving, stupid hicks who want Hillary for President and Pelosi for speaker!!! They probably never voted for Republicans in the first place! They're just Democrats trying to ruin our chances! The polls are lying!!! Look at their sign up date, anything after mine is suspect. The site has been infiltrated by BircherBuchananiteDUTrollDemInfiltratorMobyStormfronterracistxenophobantihispanicnazibigots and all they do is whine and bitchbithchbitchbitchbitch all the time.
I can't imagine why y'all were unable to sway them to see the light.
Jonnie, we just had an election that decided all that and the outcome is not my fault.
It is over except the cosmetics. I wish it were otherwise.