You know WAR?

[Texas Gentleman]

You know WAR?

 

You know, I have been doing a lot of thinking about the why and how’s of our wars on terrorism at home and globally, in Afghanistan, Iraq, the UN’s involvement, the UN Security Council actions (especially concerning Iraq), Osama Bin Laden, Zarquawi, other militant Islamic murderer's and WMD proliferation we are fighting against with our true allies help and the actions taken by President Bush’s military responses in general.

 

I can come to no other conclusion except Bush did it right and is doing it exactly the right way. I will attempt to outline below why I think so.

 

The tragedy of 9/11 profoundly changed the attitude of most all Americans and most of the World at the time. When it was verifiably linked to Al-Qaeda no one had doubts about what to do or where to find these fanatic murderers except for far left wing anti-war cupcakes. There was no cry for a PLAN, no cry for an EXIT STRATEGY, it was overwhelmingly considered a great idea to kick some a$$ and DO IT NOW.

 

That was pretty much “the plan” when we mobilized our Military might to that treacherous part of the World and we worked out command and control with our true allies.

 

Primarily those allies where WHO? DO any of you remember the FRENCH, THE GERMAN, THE RUSSIAN, THE CHINESE contributing ONE single soldier to invade Afghanistan and bring down the Taliban or search for Bin Hidin? I sure as badWord don’t. It was as usual, only Americas true friends and allies like the British & Aussies who provided additional forces, but it was mostly a unilateral force with the US carrying the water as in most major conflicts in the world today. No one in the UN or on the Security Council opposed us then did they? Not the Russians, not the French, not the Germans or Chinese either. Of course they had nothing to lose with their non-investments in Afghanistan except for any troops they might have sent if they helped. Easy outs for them.

 

One of the biggest problems is taking on conflicts where the UN ALWAYS vacillates is that some Americans seem to think you shouldn’t do it unless France and Germany are on board, otherwise it is considered acting unilateral. It matters not if it is in America’s interest to do so it would seem with some of our traditional allies criticizing instead of helping. The only thing I can say is when France and Germany take the critical stance here they are more interested in their own potential monetary losses from those repressive regimes than actually being a good world citizens. One who truly cares about ALL peoples freedoms. In other words they have GREED motivations. (witness oil for palaces kick back schemes with Iraqs Saddam)

 

In Afghanistan and Iraq, as we were told going in, it would be long, difficult, and even told un-winnable by Americas lefties. Afterall hadn'ttheRussians failed in Afghanistan after10 years fighting there? A lesser man than George Bush might have gotten weak knee’s at the prospect of sending troops into a "mountainous Vietnam" (Afghanistan) and found some sort of excuse not to go. But with little support from France and Germany, not only did Bush take the fight to our enemy, we bombed Al-Qaeda's camps, decimated the Taliban, drove them out of power in less than two months, freed millions and sent our enemies running into Pakistan and remote caves on the Afghan border, where they live today as hunted men.

 

That is even more impressive than it sounds since our defeatist press was crying "quagmire" & "Vietnam" as we bombed our enemies into oblivion. Some say that job has been distracted by the Iraq adventure now and we let Bin Hidin go? Well the lair’s for these would-be jihadist have been somewhat decimated and they are being pursued by the most unlikely of allies in Pakistan. That’s pretty damn good in my view. If anyone thinks OBL is still in Afghanistan enjoying the good life requiring a larger force than we have pursuing him and those jihadists, perhaps YOU should be the Generals in charge. I for one am damn glad you aren’t.

 

But anyway thanks to George Bush we didn’t waste much time using our highly motivated and extremely capable forces on the atrocious Iraqi régime as well while we were in the neigborhood. And now?……Saddam's WMD's, no matter however many he had of them, aren't going to be a threat in our future EVER used by him. In the world after September 11th, that was a risk we just could not afford to take. Additional benfit is 25 million Iraqi’s are now free to finally make free choices in their own destiny.

 

Without question, Iraq was a nation whose regime provided "safe haven" for terrorists with "global reach". Among them were terror master Abu Nidal, Abdul Rahman Yasin, one of the conspirators in the 1993 WTC bombing, "Khala Khadr al-Salahat, the man who reputedly made the bomb for the Libyans that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland," Abu Abbas, mastermind of the October 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking and murder of Leon Klinghoffer," & "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, formerly the director of an al Qaeda training base in Afghanistan" who is now believed to be leading Al-Qaeda's forces in Iraq. Quite frankly, any war on terrorism that didn't tackle that nest of vipers would have been a war in name only. Going after them showed George Bush's leadership against the global scourge of terrorism.

 

In Iraq, we removed Saddam Hussein, an anti-American tyrant & sponsor of world terrorism who started two wars of aggression in the region while he simultaneously raped, tortured, and butchered his own people with a zeal matched by few figures in modern history.

 

This war is global my friends and you better wake up to that fact. We are fighting and taking the fight to these radical Muslim extremist murderers globally and Iraq is only one of the nesting dens for theses fanatics.

 

Once this global war on terrorism began, the performance of our military was incomparable. Saddam's forces were defeated, scattered to the four winds in less than a month, even as the press, a week into the war, was again baying the dreaded "V word" loud and often. ( in the finest Nazi traditions of Herr Goebbels—‘repeat it over and over until the masses believe you’

 

George Bush made it possible to remove this tyrant and search for his WMDs while freeing 25 million Iraqi’s held in a bondage of terror for 35 + years under his tyrannical régime, but Bush terribly miscalculated the home front tyrants of the left wing, anti-war, anti-(fill in the blank) a$$holes propaganda to undermine the publics support and destroy peoples resolve for this JUST war, just as it once had done during a period of bringing the dreaded “V” word into vogue under a younger John Kerry’s anti-war leadership.

 

It is a shame about the far left and regressive Democrats homegrown opposition this President and consequently the necessary wars, which Bush, now leads. They are blight on my country. (those now bravely opposing this war after the fact on TV for political purpose)

 

Bush miscalulated them because here's what he thought he understood;

 

“little reason to confront them intellectually or morally by assuming few could identify with fascism, gender apartheid, terrorism, and intolerance, he forgot that forty years of postcolonial studies, multiculturalism, cultural relativism, and aristocratic pacifism in our schools and public discourse which imbued a real mistrust of the United States that was far stronger than any ideological revulsion to Islamic fascism. The shrill Deanism’s morphed into conspiratorial Moorism’s ending up as the canonical outrage of the Democratic Party." – VDH

 

Bush didn’t stand down because other countries waffled like France, Germany, China and Russia although they once were considered allies, who now were totally engrossed in their own greedy dealings with Saddam to be of any use, but instead focused on, as the left loony’s put it, “the Coalition of the coerced and bribed” --a Mareen Dowd quote? He will not stand down for the Democrats either when Americans regain their senses in Nov. elections here.

 

Our left loonies act like dangerous children; so afraid of Bush beating their guy in Nov. they give aide and comfort to America’s enemy, by attempting to defeat Bush at the expense of America with every dispicable lie they can muster.

 

Desperate and miserable, they are even rallied against the Patriot Act. The USA Patriot Act that brought down the artificial wall separating law enforcement and intelligence officers and allowed them to talk to each other as they work to prevent future attacks. The Bush Administration's support of the Patriot Act has helped to make America safer from terrorist attacks. Of that there should be no question. Yet with every obstructionism we suffer here at home and abroad, Bush slogs on making American’s and the world safer day by day.

 

Thanks to George Bush's diplomacy, Libya gave up its WMD program and a nuclear arms ring run by a Pakistani scientist has been put out of business as a side benefit, smashed Al-Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan, killed or captured more than 2/3rd's of Al-Qaeda's leadership, have blocked Al-Qaeda from attacking inside the US for more than 2 1/2 years, and according to the 9/11 commission, Al-Qaeda's funding has started to dry up,

 

"Since the September 11 attacks and the defeat of the Taliban, as Qaeda's funding has decreased significantly. The arrests or deaths of several important financial facilitators have decreased the amount of money al Qaeda has raised and increased the costs and difficulty of raising and moving that money.

 

...Moreover, it appears that the al Qaeda attacks within Saudi Arabia in May and November 2003 have reduced - perhaps drastically - at Qaeda's ability to raise funds from Saudi sources. Both an increase in Saudi enforcement and a more negative perception of al Qaeda by potential donors have cut its income."

 

Because of George Bush, we are slowly but surely winning this war on terrorism. Even with some of our recent enemies help (insert Pakistan) and the continued intelligence sharing of our critics France , Germany, China and Russia who know that’s in their own best interest also. This has recently extended itself to many Islamic countries who recognize the same including Saudi Arabia who has been suffering from there homegrown militants they fostered to begin with. (wahabbism is truly a scourge to mankind)

 

Some Bush Critics claim all he has accomplished is stirring up a “hornets nest” and created more ‘radical islamic jihadist’, offended our most valued allies and most of the world in the process as he ineptly leads our military, by still stubbornly refusing to increase our troop strengths and coddling France and Germany into contributing troopswhichthe have NO intention of doing anyway.

 

I would hazard the postulation of a few facts: Our military brass, the Generals run these wars and set military troop strength requirements for their operational battle plans, (and consequential re-building …. That is their Job and Bush supports all they ask for and need. As for stirring up this “hornets nest” and creating more jihadist with intent on destroying America, the critics fail here to comprehend these animals were not born during these recent engagements, but had been pursuing our destruction from the beginning. These maddrassas of hatred did not start indoctrinating hatred because of our actions now. They instead are the cause of our reactions we had ignored far to long.

 

The direct benefits of the ground wars in both Afghanistan, and more importantly Iraq, is a true stroke of genius for the overall war on terror. The genius of it is, it has motivated these long ignored jihadists to come out fighting and showing themselves were we can kill them. They cannot be negotiated away. We have in effect draw them in like fly’s to flypaper and that is a good thing. It is better than having them hide in our cities waiting for orders to attack us here at home. So now in addition benefit to world freedom and my homelands security, two fascists, terrorist governments are now gone forever and something better is in their place, with a chance that it just might help alter the landscape of the whole region. In fact Saudi, Syria and Iran are now beginning to get this bigger picture. Our traditional ally Jordan, is helping more than before and so are Turkey, Egypt and other middle east countries of lesser evil.

 

Saddam Hussein was a mass-murdering fascist, who we had appeased for years with UN resolution after resolution that only repressed his people more. It was past time we took him out..

 

One of my favorite analyst and authors recently wrote some wise observations below:

 

…..after 9/11 there was no longer any margin of error in "boxing in" a rogue dictator that had struck four nations, violated most of the 1991 armistice agreements, ignored over a dozen U.N. resolutions, butchered tens of thousands, ruined the environment of Mesopotamia, constantly tried to recycle petrodollars to terrorists, attempted to assassinate a sitting U.S. president, and was in a stand-off with the U.S. Air Force involving 12 years, 350,000 sorties, and the control of two-thirds of Iraqi air space. Indeed, on September 11, 2001, American military forces were being fired on and firing back at the forces of just one nation in the world: Baathist Iraq.

 

Given that there were many valid reasons to remove Saddam in a post 9/11 climate, we can lament that the administration privileged the casus belli of worries over WMDs, which proved to be based on flawed intelligence — a shortcoming that the United States in wartime has often experienced. As far as the war itself, we removed Saddam from power in three weeks under impossible conditions of driving nearly 400 miles from a single small front without tactical surprise. We have paid a steep price for the reconstruction — perhaps nearing 1000 combat dead, tragically. Yet due to our soldiers' courage and sacrifice, after little more than a year there is the beginning of the first consensual government in the Arab Middle East, and elections are slated on a schedule far ahead of our efforts after World War II. Just as the liberation of France and the final defeat in Germany overshadowed the horror and stupidity of the war on the ground in 1944, so too, when all is said and done, the fact of a free Iraq — not the hysteria about Abu Ghraib, Joe Wilson, or Richard Clarke — will remain.

 

In contrast to all this, John Edwards says that Americans have died "needlessly" in Iraq, although he does not tell us why he voted for the war, or whether he would now change his vote had he known beforehand that CIA estimates of Iraqi WMD seem to have been in error. Yet this same John Edwards once thundered: "The path of confronting Saddam is full of hazards. But the path of inaction is far more dangerous."

 

For all their triangulation, deep down inside both he and John Kerry are not foolish. They don't want a post-9/11 world with Saddam's petro-tyranny intact, more wounded al Qaedists seeking refuge in Baghdad, an unimpressed Qaddafi back to his terrorist machinations, Dr. Kahn franchising his nuke-mart, or the Saudi royal family fueling fundamentalist killers even as 10,000 Americans are on its soil.

In other words, Kerry and Edwards sense that Iraq has had some strange — but as yet not fully understood — positive effects that are just beginning to ripple out. Are Middle Eastern autocracies and monarchies such as Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia talking more or less about democratic reform after Saddam's removal? Are rogue regimes such as Iran and Syria now more or less worried about scrutiny of their terrorist subsidies?

 

With extremists like Michael Moore and ANSWER breathing down their necks, Kerry and Edwards cannot accept history's tragic verdict that there are terrible costs to pay in any necessary war. Yet they also don't know what else could or should have been done to get us where we are now.

 

And so otherwise savvy politicos talk mindlessly of allies, the U.N., and multilateralism — nice, fuzzy ideas that did nothing to stop the horror in the Balkans or Rwanda, and will do nothing either to prevent it in the Sudan — but never of getting out of Iraq now or lamenting their votes that helped get us in.

So, yes, they talk around the edges — nuancing this, quibbling with that — as they search for an edge in an election year. So does Bill Clinton as he attempts to rewrite history and airbrush his past appeasement of terrorists. And so do we all as we pretend that the real danger is the Patriot Act, not cold-blooded killers from the Middle East, or that our rudeness needlessly offended true friends like France.

We talk the easy talk, but history, I think, is not listening. -- Victor Davis Hansen

It takes aggressive action to defeat these murdering terroristby taking the fight to them.“

 

you are either with us or against us” -- GWB

 

sorry for the long rant, but it needed to be said !!!

[J Thomas]

No, it didn't.