Since I’ve been out of it for the last few days due to the death of Jerry I’m sure many have blogged already about the Prime Minister of Iraq, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, interview on MSNBC. I’ve just read it and a couple things stick out:
GREGORY: The American people, as I mentioned, are unsettled about how the war is going. How do your react when you hear the political debate in this country about Iraq? More Americans ? a majority of Americans, according to a recent poll ? disapprove of how the war is going. More Americans want American troops to return back to the United States and there are more calls for an exit strategy now, even talk by a prominent Democratic Senator today, of Iraq being a quagmire. How do you react to that?
AL-JAAFARI: There are two conflicts that the Iraqi people went through. One was against dictatorship and against Saddam Hussein and obviously the people of the West and America stood by the Iraqi people and they got rid of Saddam. Now the conflict is against the biggest enemy that faces us all, which is the enemy of terrorism and this is a war on terrorism and Iraq is leading that war on terrorism.
It is the same type of terrorism that is all over the world. The same type of terrorism that the people suffered from here, it is the same type of terrorism that obviously affected Spain as well and all around the world it is the same type of terrorism. We are in the front lines of the war against terrorism and this terrorism at the moment is beginning to withdraw, it is beginning to weaken. It is extremely important that the American people do not stand in the face of this and allow us to win the war against terrorism, which will bring peace to the whole world.
Those of us with some common sense understand and agree with the Prime Minister, that is why it is so important that we fight the left in their attempts to undermine the success of the Iraqi operation.
GREGORY: But the real question was, did you envision that Iraq would be as dangerous as it’s become when Saddam was removed from power? Are you not surprised?
AL-JAAFARI: You cannot compare the time now compared with the time of Saddam Hussein. During Saddam Hussein he killed one million people. 300,000 he killed in a few days during the uprising. He used to put people in acid baths and cut people to pieces. He hacked the poor and started many, many wars. So now the situation in Iraq is much, much better than it was in the time of Saddam Hussein. This is a fact and a Reality.
GREGORY: Vice President Cheney said a few days ago that he thinks the insurgency is in its final throes. Do you agree with that?
AL-JAAFARI: Indeed. It’s true. We do not call them insurgents. We call them terrorists. Because that’s what they do. They carry out acts of terrorism against innocent people, men, women and children and it is true that with the help of friends and with the support of our friends and with our securing our borders, we will very soon defeat terrorism.
GREGORY: Well, here’s a different view. The top military commander in the Persian Gulf actually disagrees with the vice president, saying that the insurgency is as strong today as it was six months ago. This after successful elections in January. This after a political process that’s moving toward a constitution in August. Why hasn’t the insurgency been brought to its heels?
AL-JAAFARI: I certainly, again, would not call this an insurgency. I
would call it a group of terrorists who are out to kill as many people as possible. That is easy to do. Anyone can come in and blow himself up and choose the softest targets possible and carry out acts of terror.And all of them come from outside Iraq and they admit this freely on TV when they are interrogated.
“Insurgents” only refers to people who have a social base and have support. They carried out either armed uprising or peaceful uprising like Gandhi but these are no such thing. They are terrorists.
YES! Keep at em Mr. PM, these fools in the MSM and on the left who continuously call the terrorists insurgents need to be smacked upside their heads. Those who blow up innocent men, women, and children are not insurgents. They are terrorist plain and simple.
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