Recruiting jihadists, that is. I am gonna catch you know what for this one, but somebody had to ask it.
One of the favorite topics of discussion in the media and among Iraq war critics is whether or not the Bush administration has properly prosecuted the war, but the topic I have yet to hear discussed is whether or not the anti-war left and the media in America have properly prosecuted their roles during the war in Iraq.
With Bob Woodward’s book, State of Denial, in the news, and the recent declassification of the April 2006 National Intelligence Estimate, the topic of how things are going in Iraq, whether we are more or less safe, and whether or not the action there has led to the recruitment of more terrorists, is a hot topic.
Not being debated, though, is what the status of the war in Iraq might be today if Democrat leaders and the media had conducted themselves differently. If all the successes of American troops in Iraq had been reported as studiously as the setbacks, would terrorists have been able to convince their young, impressionable followers that they were winning? If it were clear to the Iraqi people that politicians in D.C. were committed to finishing the mission in Iraq, would the attitude of the people there be different? If politicians and anti-war activists had not accused our own troops of engaging in torture, and worse, would world opinion, and specifically the opinion of the Iraqi people be different?No, I am not blaming all the ills of the world on the reporting in Iraq or on Democrats. I am just wondering, aloud, why there has not been more discussion about the consequences of the words and actions of the anti-war left and anti-American reporting.
Or more recently (this week), Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the Minutemen, at Columbia University.
http://www.nysun.com/article/41067
Hugh, your posts prove you are not all there. Still campaigning against someone that can’t run again. Making charges against the president that if 10% true would have you sleeping with the fish before morning. The only people you effect are the slow learners and mental retards like yourself. The majority laugh at your post. Evidently you aren’t too involved in history, Hitler did away with anyone that opposed him and so do all of the government types that you support. Millions have just ‘disappeared’ in the past few years in socialist/communist countries. There are still millions of unlocated people in mass graves, put there by your hero Saddam. Usama didn’t hide it, he just shot or removed the head (in public as a scare tactic) of anyone that opposed him and his ‘Islamic’ regime. There was a run of ‘unknown’ cause deaths in the U.S. not too far in the past. Well covered up but did happen. The people are still dead.
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/c/clintonfriends.htm
The answer to the original question posed by Lorie is irrelevant because Republicans and Democrats are fighting two different enemies.
Democrats talk about immediate pull out of troops from Iraq as being a major setback for Republicans and a blow to the Bush administration and a defeat of the Bush Doctrine. They never talk about how pull out would be a catastrophic devastation for the Iraqi people as it was for millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians in 1975 Southeast Asia (since Iraq a quagmire like Vietnam, right?).
This is not a concern for Democrats because whereas the Republican plan for Iraq is to defeat insurgents, the Democrats’ plan for Iraq is to defeat Republicans. And that’s all that matters to them, all others be damned.
Hugh, guess I missed the call too. Anyways, my father was in during the Korea conflict, my half-brother was killed in Viet Nam, I was in Desert Storm and injured, my husband was too and now he’s on his third tour in Iraq. What have you done for your country besides put down those who you don’t know by calling Republicans “chickenhawks”?
The fact is, Hugh, that public opinion is formed by the information that people have. When people who ought to have access to information frame their every word so as to not offend Code Pink it INFLUENCES public opinion. When someone like Murtha stands up in public and declares our Marines guilty, absolutely guilty, of cold blooded murder and how it’s to be expected for good men to respond to the extreme and hopeless situation by snapping… people believe him! DUH! They believe that our soldiers routinely “snap” and they believe that our troops are on the razor edge of collapse. Murtha, like the other big mouths, are speaking from “authority” and people believe them.
At home.
And overseas.
Raising a straw-man of “not supposed to say anything” bad or disagree with the president is a straw-man. There’s a great deal of dissenting that can be done without shouting to friend and foe alike that we are DOOMED DOOMED DOOMED.
Readers of blogs like Wizbang do not spend all their time exchanging warm Fuzzies over Bush. Nor is Instapundit a bastion of group hugs. Nor do milblogs, who’s proprietors at least understand what is *realistic* to expect from war provide a criticism free environment.
So quit with the idiotic “no criticism” straw-man. There’s a huge difference between dissent and the political play that is being done. There’s a big difference between dissent and portraying everything as a disaster and inevitable humiliating loss.
If Democrats don’t think we have enough troops in Iraq, Hugh, why are not DEMOCRATS encoraging people to enlist so we can send more? Why aren’t they sponsoring bills to force Republicans to vote for or against increasing the overall size of our military? Why? Because they can’t “dissent” and still push for victory without their own loony fringe passing a cat.
And every time I see the subject title of this post I think about how effective Democrats could be for recruiting if they wanted to be. They could and they don’t.
Cate S
US Army 1970-1976.Infantry Lieutenant, then JAG Corps – Captain. That ok with you?
Cate S
I also meant to ask you to point out when and where i have referred to “republicans” as “chickenhawks”. Although I would defend anyone’s right to say it or anything else they choose to say about anyone anytime the want to.
Synova:
Once again you posit that 60% of the american population is incapable of discernment. That the only ones are folks like you who, of course, look to the right wing media for your answers.
What an insult to that 60%. But then that shows the arrogance and blindness of folks like you who’s real mantra is our way or the highway. What kind of America do you come from anyway. You think that that 60% who clearly oppose this war are doing it for political reasons? Do you folks actually believe that? Cause if you do you are beyond help.
Thanks for the “Clinton’s friends” link Scrappy. I will print the page and hang it next to my Sooper-Double-“D”-Dooper top secret photo of those black helicopters that are circling my house – lol
That’s right.
We had no plan to win the war. We had no plan to secure Iraq.
We had no plan to keep Americans safe.
But to point this out is the reason we are losing.
Maroons!
To paraphrase Marley: “I shot the messenger, but I did not shoot the morons who got us in this mess.”
I support a universal military draft…
First of all it is clear that we lack patriots who want to enlist…If we had those(forget recruitment goals met)perhaps we could allow returning from Iraq more time before their return..
Second…if posters here, their children, their neighbors were drafted and were forced to fight for our nations security…maybe they would be more affected/effected by http://icasualties.org
C’mon…there are slackers in our nation..not stepping up so we can fight them over there and not over here…if they(you)won’t volunteer, than…you know…
of course..it is easy for me to call for a draft..it is not my age..56..but the fact that my disability discharge in June 1972..would mean WWIII before I could be drafted….oh by the way for those who seek..my purple band-aid USN number is B65-03-96
Look it up…… (of course USN vets from that era know our numbers were not our SSN’s)
C’mon…there are slackers in our nation…
Why yes, yes there are. And look! here they come now! Children and all…
I give up, Hugh. Bush is right. Everyone who doesn’t think so is stupid. The mere whif of disagreement is treason. Anyone who doesn’t agree is 100% brain addled.
How else do you explain the number of people who think “blood for oil” is a sane statement. No, they aren’t smart people being fed a line of political bull, they’re retarded.
Obviously.
All better now? I’ll quit trying to discuss anything with nuance or understanding of other people’s point of view or ever ever again suggest that people believe what they do because of what they see on television and hear from people like Kerry, Gore or Murtha. Why should I bother?
And next time I percieve even a hint of sanity in anything you write I’ll try to remember that no matter how I respond all you’ll hear is what I wrote above. So I’ll just save the effort.
I truly appreciate that I shall not hear from you again Synova. Promise?
“There was a run of ‘unknown’ cause deaths in the U.S. not too far in the past. Well covered up but did happen. The people are still dead…”
Cue in Twilight Zone music here.
Wow! Hey Hugh, why do you even waste your time?
You must be a pre school teacher or something. You have the patience of Job.
See folks, I do know my bible 😉
Schulz opined: “Democrats talk about immediate pull out of troops from Iraq as being a major setback for Republicans and a blow to the Bush administration and a defeat of the Bush Doctrine. They never talk about how pull out would be a catastrophic devastation for the Iraqi people as it was for millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians in 1975 Southeast Asia (since Iraq a quagmire like Vietnam, right?).”
Apparently you drank the Don Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice kool-aid, Schulz. They are lying and want you to believe that line of total BS.
Was that whole “democracy” thing just another Republican lie? THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ are telling the truth about the US presence in Iraq, and the REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS ARE LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE — all because they want your vote, Schulz – they are lying to you to get your vote.
Read the article I linked, and decide for yourself.