202typical
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I thought this was pretty interesting and would bennefit the MM comunity.
I have reccomended articles by Victor David Hanson in the past, because his clarity and logic is impossible to refute. Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institue and a brilliant historian. But his latest article, which is available through National Review online and other sources is perhaps the most succinct argument ever made in support of the war in Iraq. The link above will take you directly to the full article. Below are some of the key paragraphs that are worthy of turning off your television and reading out loud to your children.
In is opening statements, Hanson points out that the mainstream media supports a one sided view of Iraq when they keep repeating falses stories and politically motivated points of view.
Almost everything that is now written about Iraq rings not quite right: It was a ?blunder?; there should have been far more troops there; the country must be trisected; we must abide by a timetable and leave regardless of events on the ground; Iraq will soon devolve into either an Islamic republic or another dictatorship; the U.S. military is enervated and nearly ruined; and so on.
In fact, precisely because we have killed thousands of terrorists, trained an army, and ensured a political process, it is possible to do what was intended from the very beginning: lessen the footprint of American troops in the heart of the ancient caliphate.
It is almost laughable to hear the war protestors arguments against Bush and the war in Iraq. Hanson, nails them at every turn.
We took no oil ? the price in fact skyrocketed after we invaded Iraq. We did not do Israel?s bidding; in fact, it left Gaza after we went into Iraq and elections followed on the West Bank. We did not want perpetual hegemony ? in fact, we got out of Saudi Arabia, used the minimum amount of troops possible, and will leave Iraq anytime its consensual government so decrees. And we did not expropriate Arab resources, but, in fact, poured billions of dollars into Iraq to jumpstart its new consensual government in the greatest foreign aid infusion of the age.
THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD READ OUT LOUD TO YOUR KIDS
In short, every day the American people should have been reminded of, and congratulated on, their country?s singular idealism, its tireless effort to reject the cynical realism of the past, and its near lone effort to make terrible sacrifices to offer the dispossessed Shia and Kurds something better than the exploitation and near genocide of the past ? and how all that alone will enhance the long-term security of the United States.
Critics of the war mock the efforts of the Iraqi people to establish Democracy and they belittle the accomplishments of the United States and it's fighting men and women since the war began. Look at Hanson?s list of positive developments that have occured, because of the war in Iraq.
First, the Iraqi military is improving ? not eroding or deserting?In truth, the Iraqi military is proving good enough to hold ground and soon to take it alongside our own troops.
The Sunnis ? no oil, a minority population, increasing disgust with Zarqawi, a shameful past under Saddam ? will participate in the December elections in large numbers.
Zarqawi and the radical Islamicists are slowly being squeezed as only a war at their doorstep could accomplish. Critics of Iraq should ask if we were not fighting Zarqawi in Iraq, where exactly would we be fighting Islamic fascists ? or would the war against terror be declared over, won, lost, dormant, or ongoing, with the U.S. simply playing defense?
al Qaeda?s Sunni support is being coopted by democracy. Jordan, the terrorists? old ace in the hole?has essentially turned on Zarqawi and with him al Qaeda. Syria is under virtual siege and its border sanctuary now a killing zone. Bin Laden can offer very little solace from his cave. And somehow Islamists have alienated the United States, Europe, Russia, China, Australia, Japan, and increasingly Middle East democracies like those in Afghanistan, Turkey, and Iraq, and reform movements in Lebanon and Jordan.
Our armed forces have already accomplished what the British and the Soviets could never do in Afghanistan; what the Russians failed to accomplish in Chechnya; and what we came so close to finishing in Vietnam. They won't falter now when they are so close to winning an almost impossibly difficult war, one that will be recognized by friends and enemies as beyond the capability of any other military in the world.
MORE REQUIRED READING OUT LOUD TO YOUR KIDS
Kurds and Shiites support us for obvious reasons ? no other government on the planet would risk its sons and daughters to give them the right of one man/one vote. They may talk the necessary talk about infidels, but they know we will leave anytime they so vote. After the December election, expect them ? and perhaps the Sunnis as well ? quietly to ask us to stay to see things through.
Hanson?s article is worth the full read so link to it here or visit www.nationalreview.com.
As I have stated before, the war in Iraq was a bold and brilliant move on the part of George Bush and his administration. It took the war on terror, a real war, and gave it a front. That was the one thing the terrorists didn't want, it is their weakness. In spite of what the media tells you, the terrorists are fighting the war on our terms now. On the ground, in Iraq. Yes it is tough, bloody and deadly. Yes, it should be finished, won and our troops brought home as soon as possible. Everybody wants that, but what Bush has finally summoned the courage to say is that it? can't happen when we want it to happen. It will happen when it happens.
Bush will be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of our country because he had the courage to risk all for what is just, right and almost over.
Buck Evinger
I have reccomended articles by Victor David Hanson in the past, because his clarity and logic is impossible to refute. Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institue and a brilliant historian. But his latest article, which is available through National Review online and other sources is perhaps the most succinct argument ever made in support of the war in Iraq. The link above will take you directly to the full article. Below are some of the key paragraphs that are worthy of turning off your television and reading out loud to your children.
In is opening statements, Hanson points out that the mainstream media supports a one sided view of Iraq when they keep repeating falses stories and politically motivated points of view.
Almost everything that is now written about Iraq rings not quite right: It was a ?blunder?; there should have been far more troops there; the country must be trisected; we must abide by a timetable and leave regardless of events on the ground; Iraq will soon devolve into either an Islamic republic or another dictatorship; the U.S. military is enervated and nearly ruined; and so on.
In fact, precisely because we have killed thousands of terrorists, trained an army, and ensured a political process, it is possible to do what was intended from the very beginning: lessen the footprint of American troops in the heart of the ancient caliphate.
It is almost laughable to hear the war protestors arguments against Bush and the war in Iraq. Hanson, nails them at every turn.
We took no oil ? the price in fact skyrocketed after we invaded Iraq. We did not do Israel?s bidding; in fact, it left Gaza after we went into Iraq and elections followed on the West Bank. We did not want perpetual hegemony ? in fact, we got out of Saudi Arabia, used the minimum amount of troops possible, and will leave Iraq anytime its consensual government so decrees. And we did not expropriate Arab resources, but, in fact, poured billions of dollars into Iraq to jumpstart its new consensual government in the greatest foreign aid infusion of the age.
THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD READ OUT LOUD TO YOUR KIDS
In short, every day the American people should have been reminded of, and congratulated on, their country?s singular idealism, its tireless effort to reject the cynical realism of the past, and its near lone effort to make terrible sacrifices to offer the dispossessed Shia and Kurds something better than the exploitation and near genocide of the past ? and how all that alone will enhance the long-term security of the United States.
Critics of the war mock the efforts of the Iraqi people to establish Democracy and they belittle the accomplishments of the United States and it's fighting men and women since the war began. Look at Hanson?s list of positive developments that have occured, because of the war in Iraq.
First, the Iraqi military is improving ? not eroding or deserting?In truth, the Iraqi military is proving good enough to hold ground and soon to take it alongside our own troops.
The Sunnis ? no oil, a minority population, increasing disgust with Zarqawi, a shameful past under Saddam ? will participate in the December elections in large numbers.
Zarqawi and the radical Islamicists are slowly being squeezed as only a war at their doorstep could accomplish. Critics of Iraq should ask if we were not fighting Zarqawi in Iraq, where exactly would we be fighting Islamic fascists ? or would the war against terror be declared over, won, lost, dormant, or ongoing, with the U.S. simply playing defense?
al Qaeda?s Sunni support is being coopted by democracy. Jordan, the terrorists? old ace in the hole?has essentially turned on Zarqawi and with him al Qaeda. Syria is under virtual siege and its border sanctuary now a killing zone. Bin Laden can offer very little solace from his cave. And somehow Islamists have alienated the United States, Europe, Russia, China, Australia, Japan, and increasingly Middle East democracies like those in Afghanistan, Turkey, and Iraq, and reform movements in Lebanon and Jordan.
Our armed forces have already accomplished what the British and the Soviets could never do in Afghanistan; what the Russians failed to accomplish in Chechnya; and what we came so close to finishing in Vietnam. They won't falter now when they are so close to winning an almost impossibly difficult war, one that will be recognized by friends and enemies as beyond the capability of any other military in the world.
MORE REQUIRED READING OUT LOUD TO YOUR KIDS
Kurds and Shiites support us for obvious reasons ? no other government on the planet would risk its sons and daughters to give them the right of one man/one vote. They may talk the necessary talk about infidels, but they know we will leave anytime they so vote. After the December election, expect them ? and perhaps the Sunnis as well ? quietly to ask us to stay to see things through.
Hanson?s article is worth the full read so link to it here or visit www.nationalreview.com.
As I have stated before, the war in Iraq was a bold and brilliant move on the part of George Bush and his administration. It took the war on terror, a real war, and gave it a front. That was the one thing the terrorists didn't want, it is their weakness. In spite of what the media tells you, the terrorists are fighting the war on our terms now. On the ground, in Iraq. Yes it is tough, bloody and deadly. Yes, it should be finished, won and our troops brought home as soon as possible. Everybody wants that, but what Bush has finally summoned the courage to say is that it? can't happen when we want it to happen. It will happen when it happens.
Bush will be remembered as one of the greatest leaders of our country because he had the courage to risk all for what is just, right and almost over.
Buck Evinger
