No Peaceable Kingdom in the Middle East.
Posted on 08/14/2005 10:32:37 AM PDT by minerboy
I'm sickened when someone believes what he reads in the Waaaa... Compost.
No names = more WaPo bullsqueeze.
These worthless traitos just make it up as they go along.
Actually cesspool is my own special word to describe fanatical muslim countries.
You think we should have gone in (Iraq)...killed as many as we could...then leave?
IMHO doing so would have Left a power vacuum, desolation and despair, which would create more animosity towards us then exists now, not to mention a place for more terrorists to fester unimpeeded.
Sure, there are still terrorists there (festering) and they seem to crawl out of the woodwork from surrounding nations as well...but we're there to control the pest population.
Doing the "right thing" is a tough deal, everyone's a critic, and rarely is the "endgame" in clear sight. "Going in" meant we had to be prepared to stay there and continue to eradicate the bad elements for as long as it took while trying to stablize the region (man, that's a tough task)
It's always been test of "will" with the bad guys. Remember, they got away with so much under the Clinton admin...the Cole, the embassy's, etc.
WAPO, NYT, CNN, ABC, CBS, want to undermine that "will" for the simple reason doing so trash's the administration and accomplishes their socialist agenda (one driven by the nutball undereducated juco jurnos in their newsrooms).
I say the POTUS is right on this one...he brough the fight to the right enemy at the right time, granted circumstances good have been better but the "enemy" always has a vote. So, rarely, are wars predictable but they are horrific. The press chooses to highlight the horror of war for their ill intended purposes...we most remember the reasons for war and why diplomacy failed in the first part...and constantly remind the fools in the MSM we are watching them with the facts and a civilian version of an AR-15.
We should always be rational and remember why we are there.
A "senior official" who was against the war to begin with. A Clinton leftover in State or CIA.
I hear you. Thanks for the balance. I have none.
Question though...dont you think weve fought this thing with less power and overwhelming force as we COULD be? I feel no sense of urgency at all on this. We should be on the attack every day. People should be out of breath after seeing the force we unleash.
The administration has set the following since the Spring of 2003:
1) Liberate Iraq from the grip of Saddam Hussein. Done.
2) Have free and open elections. Done.
3) Draft a Constitution. Getting There.
4) Have a standing Iraqi army that can defend their own homeland from terrorists that poor in from Syria and elsewhere. Making Progress.
We won the war, it's over. We won it in 2003. Rebuilding post war Iraq has proved a difficult task but not one that's insurmountable.
How long did postwar Germany wallow in violence and a general sense of malaise? By all accounts.. 5-7 years post liberation there was still violence against the Allied presence. Japan, I believe was similar. In fact, we still have bases in both nations to this day.
My overarching point is that patience is a virtue. The soldiers that are 'in country' right now need to know that the vast majority of Americans support them and know they are doing a great job, given the setting and surroundings.
The seeming desired result that many in this country are anticipating and indeed (some) are hoping for may very well happen if our soldiers start getting wind of this growing unease here at home. And when it comes from the top down (the administration)... it DOES NOT HELP THE PROCESS.
Come on, don’t get depressed.
Some unknown “official” made some statement somewhere at some time according to a Washington Post journalist who allegedly heard this and interpreted it the way he wants.
Yea, right, that’ll carry a lot of weight!
The public is no longer as gullible as they were years ago. The MSM has lost credibility and the masses are aware of the left leaning slant.
Red6
I couldn't have said it better.
That's why Mr. bush was re-elected.
Well something is in the wind. We have gone from 'bring them on, fight them over there' to Bolton demanding 'stop bringing them on'.
Remember (back in 2003)...we were limited at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom by Turkey's refusal to allow us to move the 4th ID across their border...I have a feeling a two fron attack, along with the feignt from the North (Airborne Troops and Kurds in Northern Iraq), would have had a better impact at culling the insurgency that eventually came to be.
4th ID troops could have been tasked with sealing the Iraq/Syria border to prevent the incursion of Syrian Jihadists and intel agents (Who knows, since it never came to be). Remember, Falluhja was filled with Syrians...the Marines found this out by killing many of them when the city was finally cleared.
Gen. Franks, and the rest of the CENTCOM folks, did the a good job with the troops they had and the level of surprise they wished to have in '03. The whole world thought it would be another build up 500K troops like GW1, slow and lethargic, which would have given Saddam enough time to enact a scroched Earth directive he had in place, but Franks gambled that speed and surpise of a highly mobile, highly lethal force would be enough to topple Saddam, and for all practical purposes he was right...but...he didnt count on the level of insurgency, which can only be tempered by numbers and patience...again, the enemy always has a vote...and Franks was shorthanded (lack of 4th ID) in regard to the plan he had anyway, but the taking Baghdad was accomplished. Remember the infamous "Mission Accomplished" Banner...it was Gen. Franks idea.
Hindsight is an amazing thing...did wage total war against the Iraqis? No...but it was a War of liberation not of reprisal (like burning cities in Germany to the ground in WWII, becuase the German public "backed" Hitler, Saddam's rule was different.)
Iran, might see a different war from us...if we wage "Total War" against the Iranians...they will see a fury the likes of which only the Heavens during rapture could inflict on the Earth...and they should be made aware of this every waking moment of the mullahcracy's existence. However, if there are enough Iranians who wish freedom from their despotic regime...we could see another war of liberation.
My gut tells me the article is true -- I don't think any of us are happy with the lack of progress in Iraq and the self-destructive culture of Iraqis. Personally, my expectations for Iraq are lower now than when we liberated the country from Saddam (even though I'm still very glad the country is free).
It will be interesting to see if other newspapers and blogs report some of the same stories that we see here in the Post.
Thanks for that. I'm glad i'm not running the show. Reading 1776 about some of the campaigns and what it took for victory and I just wonder why we don't treat this one like the first one.
In the past waging war was, perhaps, a bit simpler...fanatical people backed fanatical leaders...so when waging war...the gloves came off.
These days tyrants, and their thugs with guns, enslave whole nation states at the point of a gun, which makes waging war much, much, more complicated.
If you like 1776...try "April 1865", and "1812: The War that Forged a Nation", are other good books.
If you are a Gen. Washington fan. "His Excellency" is a good book as well.
Gen. Franks book, "American Soldier" is a good book, just remember when reading it...that he wrote it (granted with some help.)
In hoc
Been looking for a definative GW book. Gonna try your reccom. Thanks.
...well the administration always said that it would be the Iraqi government that would ultimately have to defeat the insurgency. I don't think that there was ever much chance that things would be 'quiet' when the US military turned over the keys to the Iraqi government.
Who dreamed up these descriptions of our expectations.
'model democracy'? 'self supporting oil industry'? 'free from serious security or economic challenges'?
What is the WP smoking?
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