Democrats and opponents of the war in Iraq have claimed that American troops should be withdrawn from Iraq because “the war is lost.” Republicans and even the traditional media outlets have seen that the change in strategy put forth by the Bush Administration in January 2007 has indeed dramatically reduced violence, enabled political and social reconciliation to begin among Iraqis, and has bought the Iraqi security forces enough time to start substantially taking the lead in operations against insurgents. The new Bush strategy (commonly called “The Surge”) has also decimated Al Queda groups in Iraq. Forces involved in the new Buhs strategy/The Surge have largely been withdrawn, and now it appears that next month General Petraeus is going to order more force reductions; more U.S. withdrawals.
Why? Is it because President Bush embraced a strategy long promoted by Senator and Presidential Candidate John McCain, or will American troops be withdrawn in a defeat as Democrats claim?
How does one spin success into defeat while “supporting the troops”? What will Senator Reid and others say to American forces who return? “Welcome back, too bad you failed, but we always knew you would?” Or will they say, “Thank you for doing what we thought was impossible?”
It’s gonna be interesting this Fourth of July.
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Leave it to the dems to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. So, when the troops come home will there be a ‘victory’ parade in NYC??
Not all the troops will come home. There will likely be enough left to continue the mission that Dems say needs to be done:
train ISF
fight AQ
protect Americans
I’m gonna guesstimate that the number will be around 50k. With that many still serving over there, it’d be hard to declare victory, but I’d love to see a parade if for no other reason than to see Dems come out and declare it a farce since the troops were returning in defeat (the war is lost), OR they’d have to admit that the troops and what they’ve done (fought for Operation Iraqi Freedom) had in fact succeeded-not lost)
There is nothing I would like to see more than good old fashioned victory parades conducted in cities and towns all over this country.
I wonder, however, if in our day of political correctness and sensitivity training if we have the courage to do it.
I know that when we go to the St. Patrick’s day parade in Savannah the crowd is on its feet with cheering and applause, the flags are waving, and the excitement and pride is palpable when the members of the military, particularly the 3rd ID, march by.
America will never forget, and will be forever indebted to the men and women who defend our freedoms and fight our wars for us without regard to how the minority of people respond.
I have no doubt that if elected, President Obama and Democrats will declare victory in Iraq.
No doubt at all.
Until elected…not a chance. The only way they’ll declare victory and admit success is if they can gain political capital in doing so.
We have been promised a “pullout” of Iraq, in time for the Fall Ecections every election since 2004.
We’ll see..
GREAT point Steve. And might I also point out that we’ve been promised from the left that for the last five years we’ve also been told:
-Bin Laden has already been captured, but Bushco is waiting for the right moment to use it as PR
-there will be a draft anytime now because the Army is broken
-there will be another staged 911-style attack to boost poll numbers any time now
-and (my favorite) Iran is going to be bombed at any second
btw, we all make spelling errors, but “Ecections” looks so much like a mental slip towards ‘erections’ that FA’s gonna start showing up on viagra web searches now. Makes sens though since we’re talking about the premature evacuation of forces from inside Iraq.
[cheeky smile]
exit question: does this mean that “redeployment” is now a form of birth control?
“It’s ok baby, I’ll just redeploy.”
-Bin Laden has already been captured, but Bushco is waiting for the right moment to use it as PR
-there will be a draft anytime now because the Army is broken
-there will be another staged 911-style attack to boost poll numbers any time now
-and (my favorite) Iran is going to be bombed at any second
Please document these “claims”.
The “bin Laden has been captured and being held fo the election” story is flat out fantasy. bin laden got away when President Bush shifted assets to invade iraq. He is back to the life he lead before the Septamber 11, 2001 attacks and hapily recruiting new adherents to his cause. He lead the attacks and he got away with it.
The Army already has a back-door draft int he form of stop-loss orders that are holding thousands. Charley Rangel is about the only one talking seriously about a draft. In my opinion because if any of the ChickenHawks of the Bush team actually though they, or their children, might actually be compelled to serve in the wars they started, the war in Iraq would end in a week. I tend to agree with that assesment of the perle’s, Gingriches and Wolfowitzes of America.
The “9/11” repeat story is on a par with the “secret drug airstrips” stories pred by the Arkansas project about Bill Clinton in the 1990’s. Lies by people whose hatred outweighs any thought process. only the most fanatic wold believe either one.
Bombing of Iran. John McCain certainly got lots of yuks from the Conservatives when he sang a song about it. Personally, I will wait until after President Bush leaves office before I doubt that George W.Bush doe snto wish to bequeth a third botched war/occupation on his country.