A wonderful speech tonight by President Bush that layed out exactly what will happen if we cut and run:
The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time. On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life. In the long run, the most realistic way to protect the American people is to provide a hopeful alternative to the hateful ideology of the enemy — by advancing liberty across a troubled region. It is in the interests of the United States to stand with the brave men and women who are risking their lives to claim their freedom – and help them as they work to raise up just and hopeful societies across the Middle East.
From Afghanistan to Lebanon to the Palestinian Territories, millions of ordinary people are sick of the violence, and want a future of peace and opportunity for their children. And they are looking at Iraq. They want to know: Will America withdraw and yield the future of that country to the extremists — or will we stand with the Iraqis who have made the choice for freedom?
The changes I have outlined tonight are aimed at ensuring the survival of a young democracy that is fighting for its life in a part of the world of enormous importance to American security. Let me be clear: The terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are without conscience, and they will make the year ahead bloody and violent. Even if our new strategy works exactly as planned, deadly acts of violence will continue — and we must expect more Iraqi and American casualties. The question is whether our new strategy will bring us closer to success. I believe that it will.
Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved. There will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship. But victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world — a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties, and answers to its people. A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights terrorists instead of harboring them — and it will help bring a future of peace and security for our children and grandchildren.
Perfect! He layed out the fact that this war will not be pretty but the advance of freedom and Democracy in a portion of the world that has seen neither and has been a breeding ground for Al-Qaeda is the most important fight of our generation.
9/11 taught us, or should have, that we cannot sit idly by and allow the hatred and ignorance in that part of the world to fester without tackling it head on, and believe me, bringing freedom to people is a tackle that knocks the enemy out.
The White House layed out the specifics of the plan:
The President’s New Iraq Strategy Is Rooted In Six Fundamental Elements:
Let the Iraqis lead;
Help Iraqis protect the population;
Isolate extremists;
Create space for political progress;
Diversify political and economic efforts; and
Situate the strategy in a regional approach.Iraq Could Not Be Graver – The War On Terror Cannot Be Won If We Fail In Iraq. Our enemies throughout the Middle East are trying to defeat us in Iraq. If we step back now, the problems in Iraq will become more lethal, and make our troops fight an uglier battle than we are seeing today.
Bush will not accept defeat, nor talk of defeat (or in lefty codespeak…."redeployment") for which at least one Democrat applauded him for it:
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., applauded Bush "for rejecting the fatalism of failure and pursuing a new course to achieve success in Iraq."
The rest of the whole friggin party had a jerkfest of bashing Bush with no real plan of their own except defeat. They have continued to harp on Bush for not admitting failures, well they got one tonight:
The situation in Iraq is unacceptable to the American people — and it is unacceptable to me. Our troops in Iraq have fought bravely. They have done everything we have asked them to do. Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.
Will that make them happy….I think not. They will not be happy until the US goes home with their tails between their legs yelling "we are at fault for all the worlds woes!". They don’t believe we are at war with radical Islam nor are we seriously threatened by anyone. 5 years after 9/11 and it’s a distant memory to them.
As for the expected idiocy from the left after the speech my favorite from my limited perusing tonight is this one from Wesley Clark:
He said it was silly to assume we’d be greeted as liberators in Baghdad. O’Reilly said, Well, we went into Kabul and were greeted that way. To which Clark responded, "Yes, but the Afghan people had been oppressed by the Taliban." O’Reilly then said, You mean people weren’t oppressed in Iraq? Well, yes, there was unhappiness there, said Clark. Or he might have said there was some happiness there, I couldn’t quite tell. Either way, Clark basically just said the people of Iraq weren’t really that oppressed by Saddam’s rule.
Yeah, the Iraqi’s were just a bit unhappy…nothing serious tho.
Geez.
The most important part of this speech may be this paragraph:
Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity – and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.
That sure sounds like we are not going to take the meddling of Iran and Syria sitting down anymore.
Did we just declare war on Iran and Syria?
Man, I hope so.
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