Posted on 05/01/2007 4:52:38 AM PDT by Wuli
Iraq: No matter how much sweat and blood (and hot air) it takes, some on the right will let nothing stand in the way of America losing in Iraq — not even convincing signs that the U.S. is winning.
Has there ever been anything sadder than William F. Buckley Jr., one of the architects of the intellectual groundwork that defeated the Soviet empire, throwing in the towel on the Iraq War?
In his most recent column, the National Review magazine founder called it "simply untrue that we are making decisive progress in Iraq" and compared the violence there to an incurable virus; he considers our new strategy in Iraq as futile as Prohibition was in fighting alcohol consumption. William F. Buckley: An uncharacteristic retreat.
William F. Buckley: An uncharacteristic retreat.
Buckley, among those who laid the foundation of the Reaganite political philosophy that re-energized the GOP a quarter century ago, even wondered if "the Republican Party will survive this dilemma."
Of a similar mind is Sen. Chuck Hagel, the Nebraska Republican who seems poised to run for president on an anti-Iraq War platform. He told columnist Robert Novak that Iraq is "really coming undone quickly" with the Maliki government getting "weaker by the day."
The Iraqi police, Hagel says, are "corrupt, top to bottom" and the Iraqi parliament paralyzed. He also calls it "nonsense" to suggest that the terrorists winning in Iraq would make attacks on the U.S. homeland more likely.
But while Hagel may have an 85% American Conservative Union voting record, and Buckley may be a legendary figure on the right, their willingness to help Democrats raise the white flag is not justified by the facts.
Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a high-ranking al-Qaida commander..................
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Take comfort in the fact that Buckley knows nothing about counterinsurgency...all the experts on that subject are advising Gen. Petraeus in Iraq.
If we run from Iraq... it will be because of Republican weaklings.
I agree with your assessment of William F. Buckley, and it may just be that his mind is starting to go on him.
I see signs of the WOT improving and it is a war that will and must be won.
Old and in the way, that’s what I heard them say
They used to heed the words he said, but that was yesterday
Gold will turn to gray and youth will fade away
They’ll never care about you, call you old and in the way
And Democrat weaklings, and a whole lot of things.
It’s a sad facet of old age that in one’s waining years, one is inclined to be an appeaser. The inclination to have others see you as wise and at peace grows steeper as the metronome slows.
The Truman administration abandoned South Korea in the late 1940's.
Because of that mistake, in the last 30 months of his administration, Truman sent 30,000 Americans to their deaths in order to wrest South Korea back from Kim il-Sung's control.
Truman said he was sending our troops to fight a "police action" against bandits, but soon learned that he needed to draft Americans and impose severe censorship on news out of Korea.
We can't pretend problems don't exist.
Could be both though.
Haven't heard a sound political idea out of him in a couple of decades.
Didn’t Buckley say it was a mistake from the beginning? He too, is vested in defeat. If America wins, he loses, and he’d have to admit he was mistaken. That would take a miracle.
Finally, someone got this incredibly over rated guy with who is not only a defeatist and very wrong on Iraq, but lack the simple understanding of the horrible consequences that we cannot even describe in words if we leave Iraq before we crush the terrorists there. I never liked him and I will never like him.
Suppose AP reported yesterday’s score as New York 4. One might think the Yankees won. But AP would never do that. It reported the full score: Boston 7, New York 4.The Yankees lost!
Shouldn’t AP report a war the same way? For reasons I cannot imagine, it lists only U.S. casualties, never the enemy’s.The latest partial score from AP is 104 U.S. soldiers died in April in Iraq.
Left out is that our soldiers killed 174 terrorists in April.
Now we all know this is true the press will do anything they can to lose the war. Not merely wrong, on the otherside is a truism.
But....
Look at the numbers, no really look at the numbers. We are losing 1 extremly well trained soldier for every 1.75 pick up player found in Iraq. Yea some of them are trained...none of them as well trained and equipped as our soldiers. And they are still managing a pretty high kill ratio against our guys.
Not sure about you but I would have thought the kill ratio would have been far higher.
Now consider that those numbers are only US Soldiers. What if we put in our allies. I am betting that the kill ratio would be in favor of the terrorists.
Will someone please explain to me how we can sustain that sort of kill ratio against the Middle East where there is a demographic explosion of young men?
No this is not a counsel of surrender. I was for this war about 3 days after 9/11. I am still FOR this war. But I am not for this war fought the way we are apparently fighting it. We cannot continue this exchange of lives...this is like exchanging one F-22 for every 1.75 MiG-19. Perhaps that is too obscure for many of you but the MiG-19 was a Korean Conflict Jet.
It always fascinates me that people who have not been within 5000 miles of Baghdad pronounce the war “lost.” if the troops who are actually there, fighting, don’t consider it lost, why should the armchair experts think so? They have abandoned logic.
Very good example, but I am sure that our guys killed much more than 174 terrorists in April, much more.
What your said - and Buckley cannot continue to get along on looks any more, either.
Well said.
bump
“The Truman administration abandoned South Korea in the late 1940’s.”
Americans forget too much the fact that others do not forget.
James Baker pushed for and engineered Bush 41 into backing away from his statements of support for the rebelling Shia in southern Iraq at the close of the 1st Gulf War.
That sense of priority for expediency without concern for the long term consequences, produced resentment among the Shia, gave Iran ten more years to increase its influence with the Shia in Iraq and led to a lack of the extremely enthusiastic greeting some thought we should expect when we came back.
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