Posted on 11/19/2006 5:53:10 PM PST by SandRat
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2006 -- National security interests compel the United States to shape, but not control, developments in the Middle East, a region of the world that is being shaken by globalization, the senior U.S. officer responsible for the region said here yesterday.
The Middle East has always been a melting pot of ethnicity, shifting allegiances and off-and-on violence, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in luncheon remarks to members of the Military Officers Association of America. |
Abizaid gets it. Why can't some FReepers?
"Iran, which is reported to be working to develop nuclear weapons, isnt friendly to the United States, Abizaid pointed out."
And yet the President is seriously considering direct talks with these nutcases. Great idea (rolls eyes)
SO . . LET'S ROLL!!
Abizaid should have been fired a long time ago. Bush has been poorly served by Abizaid in iraq. now, he's all over the media talking a tough game - he's got the forces over there to do something about these problems, instead he's running a PC war, and our guys are sitting ducks in convoys and at checkpoints while we wait for the iraqis to "come up to speed".
Mike, your #4 wasn't kidding...
Ironic that he is speaking here of this feature being an impediment to harmony in the ME (and not the US.)
If we had had the guts to face the fascists in the 20s and the 30s, perhaps we could have avoided World War II, Abizaid said. If we keep the guts to confront Osama bin Laden and his very dangerous ideology today, perhaps we can avoid World War III.
My God the wisdom in that.
Somehow we have got to get people to listen more to people like Abizaid.
We could pull back from every front on the war on terror and the islamo facist would STILL seek to wipe us out.
sure, just keep following abizaids lead and calling everyone else an idiot. the iraq situation led to political defeat on 11/7, and I have yet to hear abizaid explain to us what he is going to do differently in iraq, then he has done over the past years. didn't abizaid get the word - "stay the course" is finished. the definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over again, and expecting different results.
the two remaining options are - 1) Fight to win, or 2) Follow the James Baker lead towards a negotiated "regional settlement".
Huh? What freepy freeper does not acknowledge that this is a low scale war with high scale stakes--our survival?
I would assert many freepers are unhappy only because we sometimes seem to prosecute a very serious threat to our survival with half-measures or unsubscribed public discourse or without our full national resolve.
Our grandchildren will wonder just who was responsible for the fall of America and the loss of its freedom if we do not get real sedrious real fast.
Put the Buffs in the air and unlimber the launch tubes. Time to take warfare seriously, or surrender seriously.
"....the iraqis to "come up to speed"
Ain't gonna happen. "Iraq", as such, never was, and never should have been.......therefore, it's never gonna be. Britain and the League of Nations didn't get it when they drew the phony borders, and Bush and Abizaid don't get it now.
I am for remaining in Iraq only as a beach-head in the larger WOT.....this nonsense about "uniting" them in democracy is getting very old.
of course, its not the high level sentiment we are taking issue with. its just that I don't want to hear it coming from abizaid. his job was to win the iraq war, period. not pontificate like this 3 years in. he sounds like he is getting ready for his book deal.
It isn't.
Iraq is not post WW II Japan or Germany. Both of those nations consisted of a hard working and incredibly industrious people. Both of those nations had almost conquered the world militarily in a very short time.
Iraq's people suffer from the cult of Islam. They are fatalistic ("the will of Allah") to the point where they have decreased initiative. Corruption is a way of life. They war among themselves at the drop of a hat (something the Germans and Japanese would have thought unthinkable).
If there are problems, they blame the West and Jews, rather than work to solve them.
Now the problem is said to be they cannot cope with "globalization."
The poor little darlings.
Abizaid should leave the abstract bullshit for the DC think tanks and instead develop a strategy to beat the terrorists.
yes, republican leaning independent voters, unhappy with iraq, were one reason we didn't win on 11/7. you certainly aren't going to claim that iraq GAINED votes for us, are you?
we should have changed the military strategy on the ground a long time ago.
what we have now is crazy. this idea that because iraq "has a democracy", that their forces must be the ones to secure the country from the militia/insurgency is madness. iraqi forces aren't ready, not even close. the militias and insurgency have been allowed to take root, build infrastructure. and our forces have been prevented from doing what they do best - offensively engage the enemy. so instead, our forces are used for checkpoints and convoy duty, where we are losing 80 soldiers a month while we wait for iraqi forces to "come up to speed".
the elections in iraq came too soon, we gave them a democracy they were in no way prepared to secure. and the presence of their "democracy" means our forces can't be used the way they are supposed to. the plan needs to change.
if we go into the 2008 elections with two more identical years in iraq to the last 2 - the Dems will rout us again.
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