Americans have a notoriously short attention span. Already, in what the President warned would be a lengthy conflict, polls are reporting that Americans are tiring of Iraq and Afghanistan. Why are we even there? What's the point?
Radical Islam is our enemy. Let us never forget what its adherents, supported by the two countries mentioned above, did less than 4 years ago. Do you remember the shock? Do you remember the horror? Do you remember how surreal it was? Do you remember that for days, there wasn't a non-military aircraft in the skies over our entire nation? How many times did you watch the video of those towers collapsing, and feel your heart sink with them?
Let us not forget that the enemy brought the battle to us and we have taken it back to him. Let us not grow weary of the sacrifices, but stay with the battle to ensure those sacrifices are not in vain. As George Patton said, let us not mourn the losses of our heroes but thank God that such men (and women) lived.
God Bless America.
4 comments:
What will you say when we leave Iraq, with our tail between our legs?
I'll say it's because people like you didn't have the guts to see it through. And then we'll wait for the bad guys to hit us again.
Blame me or blame poor planing by Bush & Company?
Probably me.
That's ok.
I really don't care who you blame.
As far as waiting for the bad guys to hit us again, my response is so what? We all await death, every hour of our lives. It doesn't justify wasting a ton of money or killing Iraqi's for Bush's lies.
I really don't care for Leeroy's "so what?" comment on waiting for the bad guys to hit us again. Obviously we should do what we can to defend ourselves from our real enemies. This was the justification for going into Afganistan and taking out the Taliban and the local Al Queda franchise, and pretty much everyone in Europe and Asia agreed with us, at the time at least. Even American liberals thought it was justified. (I know that some military commentators said it wasn't practical - that Afganistan ate up the English and Russians, and would do the same to us. They were wrong, and I'm glad 43 & co. saw through that baloney. But that's a different issue.)
What I still don't get is the extension to Iraq. The sanctions were working, and even if they were causing hardship in Iraq, sensible people understood that Saddam deserved the blame for that. It seems clear that Saddam's game of bluff and non-cooperation with pre-war inspections had, as its primary aim, not concealing his non-existent WMD programs but keeping the Iranians from taking a much deserved revenge. Our government should have understood this, and IMHO did understand it. So what was the point?
However, that's water under the bridge. This liberal is glad to see Saddam gone, since he would eventually have tried to reconstitute his WMD programs and someone would have had to deal with him then. That was why I supported the war. (Also, a lesser reason, but I was fooled by 43's campaign to make us believe there really were WMDs in Iraq.) If that's 43's reason for the war, then I think he should just come out and say so. He might get more credit and understanding than he expects.
Despite the ongoing chaos in middle and southern Iraq, there was one really good outcome - the creation of a semi-autonomous Kurdistan. I've been sympathetic to the Kurds ever since reading about them in National Geographic back in the 70's. (I think it was the 70's - it was a long time ago and I don't have the issue in front of me.) After the 1st gulf war and with the imposition of the northern no-fly zone, the Kurds have managed to create a respectable country for themselves, lacking only sovereignty and international recognition. Something that's worth preserving. I really don't see why the partition of Iraq (an artifical nation to begin with) would be such a bad thing. I know it would offend the Turks, but so what? It's not like they've been such great allies, so what do we owe them? (Another mystery - why 43 has been so tender toward the feelings of the Turks.) Fixing the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq looks out of our reach - they'll do it on their own, or not at all, and in any case it's not really our business. However, preserving democracy and freedom in Kurdistan is well within our power. Why not make that our goal, and otherwise get out of the Iraqi's way? Seems like a good exit strategy to me.
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