(sounds of crickets chirping)
georgej on August 17, 2007 at 1:02 PM

Dang crickets in the woods are getting on my nerves. But fighting them out there is just too hard. As soon as they get in the house I can kill all of them with five gallons of gasoline and a match.

Given the steady drumbeat of defeatism that has defined the Iraq narrative over the past several years, this is, as Jules Crittenden argues, nothing short of miraculous.
Of course, CNN is not so much interested in what Americans believe about the kind …

I am not surprised, given the tone of your posts.

Nevertheless besides the three reasons I mentioned above, there is another: We are winning!

And that one, by itself, is enough to convince any rational person that snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is not just wrong, but stupid, given the stakes involved.

You wrongly characterize what is happening as by your dismissive comment, “our boys are just getting picked off delaying the inevitable,” clearly ignoring the reality on the ground.

We’re not getting “picked off”, WE’RE DOING THE “PICKING.” All you are listening to is the “Litany for Surrender” that the media publishes to give the impression of inevitable defeat. But that’s not the reality. The reality is that we are doing more than decimating Al Qaeda. We are dismantling their leadership cadre, smashing their fighting forces, destroying their arms caches, and removing their pawns from the battle space in overwhelming numbers. For a graphic about how successful we have been in just July in killing their leadership, see: http://billroggio.com/dailyiraqreport/images/AQI-senior-leaders-july.php

The text narrative that goes with this is:

During Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner’s briefing from Baghdad today, he noted that Iraqi and Coalition forces “continue to achieve tactical momentum against al Qaeda in Iraq.” The month of July resulted in the 17 senior al Qaeda captured or killed, including six regional emirs, seven foreign terrorist or weapons facilitators, three cell leaders, and two leaders of media and propaganda networks, including Khalid Mashadani, the Media Emir for al Qaeda in Iraq. Mashadani helped found the Islamic State of Iraq and admitted its leader, Abu Omar al Baghdadi, is a creation of Abu Ayyub al Masri, al Qaeda in Iraq’s leader. Brig. Gen. Bergner also stated several hundred lower-level al Qaeda operatives were captured in July, and noted that al Qaeda’s leadership in Mosul has been decimated.

Iraqi and Coalition forces are maintaining the pressure on al Qaeda’s network nationwide. Coalition forces killed 11 al Qaeda operatives and captured four more in raids in Tikrit, Baghdad, and Miqdadiyah. Iraqi Army Scouts captured three al Qaeda cell leaders in the Mansour district in Baghdad. [http://billroggio.com/dailyiraqreport/2007/08/iraq_report_lightning_hammer_u.php]

Bill Roggio also reports:

US and Iraqi security forces are pushing forward on two fronts against al Qaeda in Iraq and the Shia terror groups. In the regions north and east of Baqubah in Diyala province, Operation Lightning Hammer is in its third day. Nationwide, US and Iraqi security forces continue the intelligence-driven operations against the rogue Mahdi Army, Iranian-backed Special Groups cells, and al Qaeda….
…“Right now we already have the objectives isolated,” Col. David Sutherland, U.S. commander of security forces in Diyala, told Stars and Stripes late Monday night before helicopters lifted soldiers to the cities of Abu Karmah and al Mukhaysah. “The goal is to expand the clearance of Baqubah to get the provincial and local-level governments up and going.”

Sutherland said efforts since Operation Arrowhead Ripper, carried out in June and July, were meant to force elements of al Qaida in Iraq who weren’t captured or killed during the mission to flee east of the city, trapping them in anticipation of Lightning Hammer.
[Ibid.]

What part of WE ARE WINNING do you not understand?

Why do you want to surrender Iraq to Al Qaeda, especially as we are winning?

No. Let’s “not cut our losses” — as we aren’t losing. Let’s complete our victory.

I suspect that the reason you’re “not biting” is that you are invested in our defeat in Iraq. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. I suspect that the taste of “cut and run” overpowers the sweet taste of victory.

Do you need more help in understanding why we must remain in Iraq to finish the job?

georgej on August 17, 2007 at 3:09 AM

You make some valid points and dignified argument, but I’m not biting. Even with the surge, the savages over there continue to push each other into all-out tribal warfare. Our boys are just getting picked off delaying the inevitable, and our heavily invested time and money are going up in flames. It’s far too late and completely unrealistic to believe these centuries-old tribal frictions will dissipate soon in the present Iraqi Parliament. The Parliament members don’t even bother showing up for work anymore!

Let’s cut our losses, bring half of our poor war-torn boys home, disperse the other half to Iraqi borders to restrict outside fighters from coming in and expanding the conflict. Genocide and other horrendous crimes against humanity will be committed during the Civil War, sad to say. But perhaps the Shiite militias will do a better job of killing Al-Qaeda than we are. With the satisfaction of revenge and their newly-acquired plethora of resources and land, the Shiites could join the Kurds in appreciating our efforts in their outcome and be allies. Iran and Al Qaeda will still be a problem, ofcourse, but energy independence and better foreign intelligence relations can help keep those 2 at bay, and hell, if we could stare down the mighty USSR and Hitler’s war machine, these cave-dwellers should be no problem w/ a badass like Rudy in the Oval Office. Too sum up, the genocide may have some upside…. again, sad to say.

To imagine this force has any intention of ever doing, feeling, or perceiving anything positive about national defense – no matter what the facts and the nature of the enemy are – is to not understand what it is.

In brief:

1. To destroy Al Qaeda. This is the most important reason to remain in Iraq. Iraq is where we are directly confronting the organization that struck us on 9/11/01. According to the latest NIE, Al Qaeda in Iraq is Al Qaeda’s “most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the [U.S.] homeland.” We are destroying our enemy in Iraq. We need to continue destroying them, their cadres and their recruits. Each dead Al Qaeda soldier is one who WILL NOT be attacking us here in the USA or elsewhere around the world. To cut and run now before Al Qaeda is destroyed will not end their war upon us. Besides, the only GOOD Al Qaeda fighter is a DEAD ONE! Only liberals, apparently, object to this course of action, killing Al Qaeda.

2. To prevent a genocide that would make Pol Pot’s 2.25 million murdered people look like a Teletubbies episode. According to Iraqi polls, the US military is trusted by all Iraqi constituents to be a fair enforcer. As a result, cooperation with us among the common people of Iraq, regardless of religion or ethnic background is very high. If we pull out now, there will be no moderating force, and genocide will be the result. Remember, the genocide in Cambodia plus the 800,000 murdered people in South Vietnam ONLY HAPPENED because Democrats caused their defeat and then abandoned them. Only liberals approve of genocide.

3. It is in our national interest to keep the oil resources of Iraq OUT OF HOSTILE HANDS. Premature withdrawal from Iraq will mean that either Iran or Al Qaeda (or both) will control the second or third LARGEST OIL RESERVES on the planet. It will be used as a weapon to destroy our economy, given the liberals absolutely refuse to allow us to expand our domestic oil production. You can take that to the bank — if you can afford the price of gas, that is. You’d almost think that liberals WANT our economy to crash and burn with their environmental policies and their willingness for us to surrender to Al Qaeda in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Do you need more help in understanding why we must remain in Iraq to finish the job?

Time to get out of Iraq.

But you can kill more jihadis in Iraq, at the moment, than anywhere else.

I think we were betrayed by our own government flunkies who allowed an Islamic instead of a U.S. secular model Constitution to be imposed on Iraq, but, meanwhile, the terrorists-in-training need to be killed wherever they appear. They’re appearing in Iraq.

And they aren’t going away unless we send them away.

Leaving before a lot more of them are at room temperature will only heat up things in our future.

It’s a schismic messs, with neither Sunnis nor Shi’ites going anywhere but toward a neo-Saddam strongman, but it is an opportunity for our troops to eliminate troublemakers.

Once the malignant jihadi herd is thinned, we can regroup around the oil fields and square the coalition for their war expenditures.

The Iraqis appear to have grafted away billions of infidel bucks.

Time to repay the compliment.

Aero your right about the poll.It wouldn’t affect my opinion
either.There’s no way the United States should pull out.

I’ll tell you about this war that people don’t get.
Saddam went into a country Kuwait,murdered,raped and
pillaged.President Bush SR. got the ball rolling and
thank G!D kicked his !SS out.
Then after Saddam pussy-footed around with the useless UN
for what almost 10 to 12 years of UN resolutions.
The United States and the Brits flew air cover so he couldn’t murder the kurds north and south.

The media covers this war as if Irag was having tea
and minding there own business and the United States
had nothing else to do on a Sunday.

This is a just and right war.

Unfortunately we will have to pay a price for that

William Amos on August 16, 2007 at 5:46 PM

Sad, but true. I also dislike that the Democrats have no problem leaving southern Iraq a “de facto” province governed influenced by Iran.

Indeed, the pivotal opinion change would be among those who may never say they “support the war” in any case, but who hesitate or balk at the consequences of withdrawal — especially at the very moment it begins to look like we may finally be making measurable progress.

Doesn’t everyone what?

I was being sarcastic, suggesting that “everyone,” not just EU Commissioners is ruled by opinion polls rather than, say, by using their brains.

The fact that the United States was winning every battle in Vietnam didn’t effect the attitudes in this quitter nation, so why should this war be any different.
rplat on August 16, 2007 at 6:19 PM

rplat, You and Rachel Sweet may believe that “EVERYTHING’S DIFFERENT BUT NOTHING HAS CHANGED” but this old hillbilly still has hope for the best of the country to shine through the fog of politics.

people are stupid

tomas on August 16, 2007 at 8:50 PM

You can say that again.

Well I’ve changed my beliefs several times over the last three years based on new information. Maybe that makes me a moron, I don’t know.
aengus on August 16, 2007 at 8:30 PM

Not all skeptics are morons, but some are. On the plus side many morons are gullible.

The author of those poll questions assumed a gullible public.

MirCat on August 16, 2007 at 6:54 PM

Ahctakcab

Doesn’t everyone? Or at least 50% +1 of everyone?

Doesn’t everyone what? Yeah I know America is a 50/50 nation but we’re talking about a specific issue.

For people who are natural skeptics and trying hard to be logical it is very hard to change underlying beliefs.

Well I’ve changed my beliefs several times over the last three years based on new information. Maybe that makes me a moron, I don’t know.

For political hacks like dingy Harry admitting that Bush just might have been right is way, way too much to ask.

Skeptically yours,

If you thought that way on every political issue you’d be eligible for the European Commission.

Doesn’t everyone? Or at least 50% +1 of everyone?