Sunday, November 16, 2008
VI Day: November 22
They said it was impossible, that it was a quagmire and Iraqis are incapable of getting along, etc. But on November 22 there is a proposed Victory in Iraq day.
We’ve signed an exit accord with Iraq today. The country is peaceful now. Our troops will be pulling out of the cities.
I think it should be acknowledged before Bush leaves office that he accomplished what many people thought was impossible. (Not me, I thought it would be sooner. But I blame the people Bush picked in the beginning, who mismanaged things).
Pass it along.
[ht: Macker’s World]
Saturday, November 01, 2008
No WMDs?
More of Saddam’‘s Yellow Cake uranium has made the news. So much for Joe Wilson and that ilk.
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Cleaning Up Iraq
The military strike teams, working with Iraqi citizens, are cleaning up the remnants of al Qaeda in Iraq. This has been going on quietly behind the scene for months now. As the war winds down.
Of course, the anti-war people want us to leave now. Before the job is done. Just like they did, successfully, during the Vietnam War after we had broke the back of the NVA in the Tet offensive and they were suing for peace. The anti war movement managed to trick the US population into thinking we were losing the war when we were in fact winning. The politicians got scared and the Dems cut off war funding. Nixon had no choice but to pull out before we finished. The aftermath of that war resulted in a huge humanitarian crisis and genocide like the killing fields of Cambodia
The anti-war movement, along with the Democrats, tried to pull the same trick again with Iraq, by claiming the war was lost. They wanted us to leave in defeat, because that would make it look like the Republicans are huge failures. A win would have the opposite effect, and they could not allow that. But we got the surge (which McCain championed) and everything changed for the better. The Iraq war was probably mismanaged in the beginning. It probably could have ended a few years ago. But the problem with wars is, hindsight is 20/20. When you are in the middle of one there’s a lot of chaos to sort out. It’s hard to see clearly. Mistakes get made and mistakes in war are ugly things.
Mistakes got seized upon by the left and were used as “proof” the administration were incapable of winning. But the anti-war movement today is a pale shadow of its former self. People who lived through the ‘70s remember what happened, and the anti-war movement doesn’t have the respect it once had (which was not that much to begin with). They may be very effective with their internet campaigns and google bombing of propaganda, but the public isn’t buying it. That’s why the Dems have not been able to cut off war funding like they did with Vietnam,
We need to finish what we started so another disaster doesn’t strike in our wake. So far so good.
UPDATE: This video was made by a returning soldier and not an RNC paid for commercial. It relates to what I was saying above.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
We Won
The Iraq war is winding down. We agreed to a troop withdrawl timetable and we just handed the Anbar province over to the Iraqis.
You would think this was good news, but thousands of people are violently protesting “the war” at the Republican Convention this week. Like the Global Warming crowd, they seem to be unaware of the redundancy of their actions. The war is over. The only reason we’re still there is we have troop commitments to be there until everything is handed over.
Bush said from the beginning, we will hand back the country to the Iraqis when they want us to leave. They asked and so we are.
Democrats said we would be there indefinitely. That it was “a quagmire.” An unwinnable war. Harry Reid and Joe Biden each claimed the war was lost at different points.
They also claimed the war was for oil. That we were there to kill a lot of Iraqis and steal their treasure, but instead, the first big oil contract went to the Chinese.
You don’t hear them admitting they were wrong now, do you? Bush may have managed to leave office with a relatively peaceful Iraq.
The press hasn’t had a lot to say about this. They don’t like talking about good news, especially when they said for years it would never come to this.
Well, it has. One wonders if any other Dem issue might fizzle soon. I suspect Sarah Palin will be the next thing they’ll regret going crazy over.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
There Goes an Obama Promise
It’s just been rendered moot if this report is true. Obama just lost one of his biggest talking points.
American soldiers will withdraw from cities across Iraq next summer and all US combat troops will leave the country within three years, provided the violence remains low, under the terms of a draft agreement with the Iraqi Government.
In one of the most detailed insights yet into the content of the deal, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, has also told The Times that the US military would be barred from unilaterally mounting attacks inside Iraq from next year.
In addition, the power of arrest for US soldiers would be curbed by the need to hand over any detainee to a new, US-Iraqi committee. Troops would require the green light from this joint command before conducting any operation.
Notice the part I italicized. If there is a return to the bitter sectarian violence, then they would need us to stay and add more troops. But I think its in everyone, except al Qaeda’s interests, to see the US leave.
What no one is going to say in the press is, this largely vindicates Bush’s war. We won. And they said it was going to be an endless quagmire…
Monday, August 11, 2008
How to Defeat Yourself
Al Qaeda continues to upset the Iraqis by trying to impose their incredibly stupid laws.
Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni elder, told Reuters: “They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram.
“They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men.”
Other farcical stipulations include an edict not to buy or sell ice-cream, because it did not exist in the time of the Prophet, while hair salons and shops selling cosmetics have also been bombed.
Most seriously, Sheikh al-Hayyes said: “I saw them slaughter a nine-year old boy like a sheep because his family didn’t pledge allegiance to them.”
As a result, they have been hunted by tribes there.
“The self-described protectors of the Sunni community now kill more Iraqi Sunnis than anyone else.”
Things are starting to really stabilize there and all of a sudden, Iraq is almost an invisible subject in the press. Like homelessness was when Clinton was president. If it’s not convenient to the big lie, then it gets ignored.
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Missing from American Newspapers
You would think this would be big news, but…wait, don’t they keep saying there is no left wing bias in the press here? Right.
American and Iraqi forces are driving Al-Qaeda in Iraq out of its last redoubt in the north of the country in the culmination of one of the most spectacular victories of the war on terror.
After being forced from its strongholds in the west and centre of Iraq in the past two years, Al-Qaeda’s dwindling band of fighters has made a defiant “last stand” in the northern city of Mosul.
A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10.
Iraq is stabilizing. Companies are moving in. Obama is going to find his withdrawal stance a weakness, except with his radical supporters. But McCain is strengthened by his stance on the war. His arguments are being validated. .
All of this was inevitable, as I have said many times before (I wish my old blog files weren’t wiped, dammit). Iraqis are people and people get tired of war. Most want peace fo some kind so they can live their lives. As long as there is a stabilizing force in the area, peace can be achieved, But if someone like Obama creates another power vacuum by pulling out US tropps, all that effort will be wasted.
As for the American media, it seems they were telling us for years that Saddam had no WMD and no nuclear program and trhe Democrats pounded on this theme over and over again. So then, how do they explain this?
The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
Emphasis mine. A HUGE STOCKPILE OF CONCENTRATED URANIUM. Excuse me? And this is just quietly reported so hopefully no one will notice?
One of my problems with the Bush administration is, they made their case and didn’t defend it well at all. They didn’t even trot out stuff like this to show that yes, there was a nuclear program. Here’s the evidence.
The invasion of Iraq was probably a really good thing despite the all the tragedy that came about from it. Most of that was the result of efforts by the very same people the war on terror was designed to fight. Now these terrorists are being put down and another country is out of their grasp. Seven years after 9/11 and no terrorist attacks in the US. The few that happened in Europe were weaker each time.
Say what you want about the war, but we seem to be winning. There’s little to indicate otherwise.
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Read the Comments
The New Republic offers an apology for the Baghdad Diaries, which were a series of fabrications by Scott Beauchamp. They made our military look like psychopathic scum and perhaps inspired some Hollywood people to make movies nobody saw. The apology took them 14 pages of blather to get around to doing, which is a pathetic attempt to bore people into not reading the last paragraph. That’s the only one that mattered.
So skip to the comments. They’re the best part. It should be noted that many of the anti-war arguments have been shot down repeatedly because of the anti-war leaders’ blatant lies. They call Bush a liar, but undermine their own position by constantly trotting out one falsehood after another. Of course, when they’re caught lying, this causes them no shame. They just change the subject and keep it up.
When Fahrenheit 9/11 was revealed to be full of mendacity and deceptions, you didn’t see too many lefties disown it. Many of them may have stopped mentioning it as the “truth” just as many will probably stop citing An Inconvenient Truth as more of its deceptions and falsehoods come to light. But you still see the occasional peace-pimp citing it.
You would think, when caught in so many lies, that some of the left would question their arguments. Many things they claimed would happen if we went into Iraq haven’t. They didn’t start coming over here to blow things up. The quagmire argument seems to be dissipating fast.
Frankly, the Iraq War could be a moot point in a few years. If that long. But don’t expect any more apologies.
Monday, November 19, 2007
An Inconvenient Truth about Iraq
Things are getting better there. So much better that even the NY Times and Newsweek have to admit it. Grudgingly, but still. That’s got to hurt.
The quagmire seems to be drying up. It’s still too early to be sure this trend will progress. But the Iraqi forces have become more effective in dealing with problems. The factions that were supposed to be engaged in a civil war, according to the left, are uniting to fight Al Qaeda.
The Iraqis are tired of war, just as the Germans were at the end of WWII. They had the same kind of insurgent problems when the war ended there, but they got sorted out.
In the end, most people want to live in peace. The idea that Middle Easterners want to live in a state of perpetual war and conflict is a racist notion. The problems in the region have more to do with tribalism than anything. Competing versions of Islam and radicals trying to seize power are several other major factors. This happens when a power vacuum happens, as in the fall of Saddam. Iraq has hug oil reserves. Naturally, different factions would like to own that.
But when those factions got the message that we’re not leaving despite what the pres and lefties want, they realized their insurgency was a failure. And Iraqis got tired of seeing friends and family dying or being maimed by the insurgent’s bombs.
The US made several mistakes when they went into Iraq. They’ve had to learn this the hard way. But the actual level of casualties on the US side is at record lows. Further, another terrorist sponsor state was taken out of the picture. Now there are only two left. If you include Libya, that more than 60% out of the picture. All in a relatively short amount of time.
Afghanistan and Iraq are still not entirely stable. There is also the fear of Pakistan falling apart. But we’re a long way from where we were six years ago. I’d say that’s a positive accomplishment.
UPDATE: Now this is really painful if you’re on the left. If the Bush Doctrine is a big success, which just might happen, a lot of people are going to look really, really stupid. No wonder they’re so pissed off.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Defeatist Watch
The surge is working according to even anti-Bush sources.
More than four months after U.S. forces completed a 30,000-strong force buildup, the death toll for both Iraqis and Americans has fallen dramatically for two months running.
U.S. commanders credit a new tactic of putting troops into neighborhood bases and of signing on disaffected former enemies as new allies in the fight against the most radical elements in both the Shiite and Sunni communities, especially al-Qaida in Iraq. Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr also has called a cease-fire, a move seen largely responsible for the drop in sectarian murders.
On Feb. 23, when the death toll
So what were the Democrats prediction earlier in the year? Nothing good. They tried to actively block it, in fact.
Rep. Jack Murtha (D) says that he has figured out a way to stop Bush’s so-called troop “surge” before it is completed, while still maintaining Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s pledge not to cut off funding for “troops in the field.” He tells MoveCongress.org in a Web cast this morning that he plans to attach strings to the president’s $100 billion war funding bill that will effectively force the Administration to stall the troop increase.
Are they going to change their tune and claim it was their idea all along?
Copyright © 2008 James D. Hudnall. All Rights Reserved
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