These elite liberal hatriotics had better pray that Iraq doesn't become a rich and free standing nation. A rich and free Iraq might hire a lot of mercs to capture and bring these war criminals to trial in Iraq for War Crimes against innocent Iraqis.
Posted on 08/09/2007 8:43:56 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Washington, D.C. -
There’s good news from Iraq, which has produced almost nothing but bad news since the 2003 invasion. The U.S. military surge, widely denounced as a last-ditch effort by an embattled, lame-duck president fighting an un-winnable civil war, is working. Even as vocal a war critic as Deputy Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has now acknowledged as much, telling CNN that the U.S. military is “making real progress.”
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the multi-national force in Iraq and author of the counterinsurgency surge strategy now underway, told Talk Radio host Allen Colmes that during the past seven weeks, U.S. troops have inflicted “enormous damage” on al Qaeda forces in Iraq, causing three times the losses sustained by coalition forces. Petraeus added that al Qaeda in Iraq, which is responsible for most of the high-profile car bombings and suicide attacks, has been “clearly linked to the... al Qaeda senior leadership, located in the Pakistan Afghanistan border trial areas.” In other words, beating al Qaeda in Iraq is clearly a serious blow to Osama bin Laden wherever he is hiding.
The surge is also having a positive impact on Iraq’s political equation, according to Petraeus: “We’re also heartened by the number of Iraqi tribes and local citizens who have rejected al Qaeda. We cannot attribute that to the surge but the surge certainly enabled that to move much more rapidly, we believe, than it otherwise would have.”
Military and political progress is heartening but with it comes a critical decision for war critics, especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, who declared the war lost months ago, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who last week pledged to continue seeking withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Public support for the war effort has been growing in recent weeks and the expected positive report from Petraeus to Congress in mid-September will likely generate additional support for giving victory a chance. In other words, the political ground on which Reid and Pelosi are standing is shifting beneath them. Do they now really want to bring our boys home just when they are poised to win?
This is not the time to let arm-chair generals on Capitol Hill second-guess Petraeus by demanding arbitrary withdrawal dates, abruptly cutting off funding for the counterinsurgency, or interfering with his military decisions. If true bipartisanship was ever needed in Washington, it’s now — while our nation is engaged in a military struggle with a dangerous, determined enemy.
“Stop making sense”...
Yeah, boy!! Hey Hillary, Obama, shove this up your butt!!!
Keep killing the bastards until the phrase changes to "The surge worked."
Both show the intestinal fortitude and belief system of John Kerry: They will do and say whatever is necessary to keep them in power. I wouldn't trust either one with a bucket of spit, let alone with the direction the Ship of State.
“Even as vocal a war critic as Deputy Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has now acknowledged as much, telling CNN that the U.S. military is “making real progress.” “
Starting the task of bending over backwards.
Yup. Keep the gloves off, keep kicking some serious a$$, and when we’ve finished it, bring our troops home to the hero’s welcome they’ve earned.
Now what?
Watch the Democrats twist in the breeze of their own making.
Wapo poll:
a.) cut the funding
b.) redeploy
c.) rebuild our infrastructure
d.) all of the above
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
MV
These elite liberal hatriotics had better pray that Iraq doesn't become a rich and free standing nation. A rich and free Iraq might hire a lot of mercs to capture and bring these war criminals to trial in Iraq for War Crimes against innocent Iraqis.
There’s good news from Iraq, which has produced almost nothing but bad news since the 2003 invasion
Could not get past that sentence.
Trying to switch the argument to the political situation in Iraq is despicable and disingenuous of you Democrats. Their cannot be political progress until the security issues are resolved.
You don’t get to move the goal post on Iraq Democrats just cause you are losing the arguement.
OOH-RAH!!!!
We can do Iraq and rebuild our Infastrucure. It a false choice.
This collapsed bridge is a very teachable moment if Conservatives have the guts to grasp it. This is a very good example of possible consequences when existing transportation dollars are repeatedly misapplied by both the State, and the Federal, Govt.
The problem here is not that Government, at all levels, lacks the money to spend on infrastructure repair, the problem is the Govt, at all levels, repeatedly misspends the funds it does have.
This bridge was determined structurally deficient in 1990. It was build using 1960s engineering norms that were now out of date.
During the 1990s the State of Minnesota diverted over a billion dollars of State, and Federal, infrastructure dollars into an eco-freak boondoggle light rail project between down town Minneapolis and the Minneapolis airport. The project was called the “Hiawatha Light Rail Corridor”.
Perhaps Minnesota politicians should have been tending to their existing infrastructure instead of wasting our money for political “legacy building” and “prestige” projects.
Using the currently stated cost for rebuilding the bridge at $250 million, for the cost of the light rail project this bridge could have been completely rebuilt from scratch 5 or 6 times during the 1990s.
This “Hiawatha Light Rail”project was largely the brain child of the Metropolitan Council . Either as the head of the council, or one of its most politically connected members at the time, was former VP Walter Mondale’s son Ted Mondale.
The sadly ironic thing here is the terminal for this billion dollar waste of State and Federal transportation dollars is about 1 mile from the bridge that collapsed.
Here is the link to the the website about the line. The bridge that collapsed is the one on the map where 35W crosses the blue line of the Mississippi River in the upper right of the map.
http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/lrt/lrt.htm
Additional information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiawatha_Line
http://www.metrotransit.org/rail/station_detail.asp
It is time for the Democrats to make the case that it was their pressure that forced President Bush to authorize The Surge, and that without pressure from Congressional Democrats, President Bush would have continued to make the same mistakes in Iraq.
Who knows, it might even be true!
I was making a joke MNjohnnie... it was satire. As far as the MN bridge is concerned... I still haven’t ruled out sabotage. Bridges that are properly maintained seldom collapse here on their own.
“Even as vocal a war critic as Deputy Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill., has now acknowledged as much, telling CNN that the U.S. military is “making real progress.” “
But the RATS know this and it is why they will site the political failure as reason to pull our troops. This way they get to support the troops while at the same time providing the reason for us to leave.
Come on people! No one saw this coming?
He tells me that the only thing Al-Qaeda had going for them was their ability to hide among the people through the help of Iraqi sympathizers or by playing on the traditional code of hospitality. Without cover, they systematically get their asses handed to them every time.
With their high-handed behavior (ordering their social superiors around like servants, killing people on minor pretexts to assert their power, seizing brides, etc.) they have worn out their welcome.
There are fewer and fewer places where they are welcome. Even some people who generally sympathize with their agenda now see harboring them as too risky.
It's as simple in many cases as this: American soldiers come to the sheiks bearing presents and listen to the sheiks' complaints and tell them "we can do something about x, but sorry, y is not negotiable."
Americans get a reputation for being honest and generous and not intefering in the internal politics of the tribe, while Al-Qaeda and Fedayeen types have a reputation for demanding money and vehicles and retainers and women, for exploiting intratribal rivalries to try and get their sympathizers in control of the clan, and lecturing everyone on why they are bad Muslims.
Good point. They completely discount:
-capture of Saddam
-execution of Saddam
-killing of his two sons
-two elections
-adoption of a constitution
-resumption of oil production
-death of numerous Al Queda operatives
-on and on and on
They can try to make that case, but most will see it as quite disingenuous, being that they put forth various resolutions AGAINST the surge. They were very vocal and the MSM was very supportive of their anti-surge rhetoric.
I think they will just move the goalposts again. That is what they always do anyway.
One thing I think we can agree on, is that Rumsfeld was dead wrong when he tried to keep the number of ground troops at a minimum. If we went in with a larger number in the beginning, this wouldn’t be a surge, it would be “maintaining the pressure.”
That said, we need more volunteers to keep the pressure on, that means better incentives to join the army.
I'm still amazed at how quick people have forgotten the importance of Hussein's ouster and death. Here was a truly evil tyrant who not only had a bad influence on global politics through his use of Iraq's oil (think Chavez), but who also started two wars, established bio and chem wmd programs whose products are still unaccounted for,intended to establish a nuclear bomb program, trained and financed thousands of terrorists, and murdered and terrorized millions of his own people. His overthrow was a milestone in mideast politics for the better.
You are absolutely right on.
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