The administration has been arguing for months against fixed timetables for bringing our forces home. To set such timetables would be to invite Iraqi insurgents and al-Qaida in Iraq to bide their time until the withdrawal, then strike harder than ever.
There are few arguments I find more specious, more offensive, and more insulting than the “Setting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq would send the wrong message to the enemy” canard. Never mind the fact that this sends the clear message that whatever may or may not be happening in Iraq is more important than the lives and well-being of our brave men and women in uniform. Never mind that American soldiers have been reduced to the role of little more than IED fodder. And never mind that this endless, pointless war is being prolonged in the name of fighting terrorism- WHEN THERE WAS NO TERRORIST THREAT IN IRAQ UNTIL WE CREATED ONE. I’m sicked by the constant parade of GOP apologists who seem to have no problem with other people’s children and husbands dying deaths that do nothing to improve American security. And don’t trot out the tired “Better to fight them in the streets of Baghdad than the streets of New York” argument. WAKE UP AND SMELL THE CAT LITTER, willya? A terrorist threat exists in Iraq for the simple reason that we created it out of whole cloth.
Taking a page out of Josef Goebbel’s playbook, Our Glorious Leader and his cronies have repeated their lies with sufficient frequency and vehemence that they’ve managed to convince a significant portion of the American electorate that the war in Iraq is a just war. That’s why it’s called the Big Lie: repeat it often enough and with sufficient convicion, and it will eventually become the truth.
When the House of Representatives recently voted 403-3 against a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, it sent a clear and needed signal to the world.
Uh, yeah, it did. And the message was that Republicans are more than willing to put forward a sham resolution when it serves their purpose. Obviously, it’s working, because GOP apologists like Hannaford are now using the resolution to support their argument that if we’re in for a dime, we’re in for a dollar.
Ah, propaganda…ain’t it a wondrous thing??
The insurgents prefer an Iraq once again under the thumb of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party; al-Qaida in Iraq, led by the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has as its goal the establishment of a radical Islamist Caliphate based in Baghdad, ruling the entire region as totalitarians.
A large majority of Iraqis want neither; they want a free, stable Iraq. For months, nearly daily bombings of Iraqi civilians by terrorists have been intended to foment sectarian civil war, but the people have not risen to the bait.
They continue to go about their daily business, recruits continue to sign up for training with security forces, and Iraqi politicians debate the shape of the new government to be elected Dec. 15.
That’s all well and good, a priceless example of making lemonades out of lemons, I suppose. But does this justify a seemingly never-ending American military presence in Iraq. Yes, Iraq deserves to experience freedom and democracy, but is it worth the sacrifice of American lives to achieve that? Or is it just that you’re willing to sacrifice someone else’s child, husband, or father?
We have freed Iraq from tyranny and given hope to millions in the region that they may gain a greater say in their affairs. We are in the process of rolling back the radical Islamist jihad. To borrow a phrase from Margaret Thatcher, this is no time to go wobbly.
Yes, we have freed Iraq from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath party. We’ve replaced it with a terrorist insurgecy that we created out of whole cloth. And, GOP apologists are furiously spinning this debacle as a fight for freedom, democracy, and increased American security. Right: the WMD argument came up a cropper, as did the argument the Saddam Hussein was complicit in the 9.11 attacks. Now we’re being asked to swallow another Big Lie: that this is about fighting terrorism and creating democracy and freedom in Iraq. It would seem that ultimately, he Administration’s strategy is to keep trying out talking points until they find an argument that the American Sheeple will buy.
Personally, I’m tired of being lied to. I’m tired of Our Glorious Leader and his apologists trying new and different tacks in order to find a way to effectively propagandize Americans. More than anything else, though, I’m tired of Americans dying in pursuit of lies and failed policy. WE DESERVE BETTER.
