Press for Troop Withdrawl from Iraq

[Army_of_One]

You know...it SURE is QUIET on the "DEMS BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW" front? I wonder what happened? Didn't they run in '06 on bringing the troops home early? Perhaps the surge is working?!?

I have a question. If there is good news from Iraq is that mean it's bad news for the Democrats?

Iraqi civilian deaths plunge - Los Angeles Times

Things are obviously getting better in Iraq due in part to the "surge". On November 1st Steny Hoyer said this...


"The president has consistently refused to follow Congress' lead to change flawed and failing policies in Iraq," he said.

All I have to say is thank goodness for the President not following your Democratic lead into submission to the enemy, early withdrawl and not giving our troops and our country a chance to be victorious.

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

....I have a question. If there is good news from Iraq is that mean it's bad news for the Democrats?...

They admitted that back in July.

Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. (House Majority Whip James) Clyburn said that would be "a real big problem for us."

Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War - washingtonpost.com

[Army_of_One]

So I ask this....IF the soldiers having success in IRAQ is a "REAL BIG PROBLEM" for Democrats...do you feel that they go to sleep at night hoping for something bad in IRAQ? If success of the soldiers/sailors/marines is a problem how do you solve the problem or get it to go away???

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by Army_of_One

...how do you solve the problem or get it to go away???

Propaganda.

[Highwayman]

From Michael Yon, independent embedded reporter.

“Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated,” according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe. Speaking through an interpreter at a 31 October meeting at the Iraqi Islamic Party headquarters in downtown Baghdad, Sheik Omar said that al Qaeda had been “defeated mentally, and therefore is defeated physically,” referring to how clear it has become that the terrorist group’s tactics have backfired. Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad. They are being hunted down and killed. Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.

Michael Yon : Online Magazine » Blog Archive » Iraqi Islamic Party says, “Al Qaeda is Defeated.”

[Highwayman]

Originally Posted by Highwayman

Propaganda.

I got your propaganda right here Army. Hot off the Kos Kids web site.

Wow. 30,000 extra troops taking out over 1000 insurgents per month has had little effect on the violence? He goes on to say it’s because Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army simply decided to stop killing Americans. I wonder what made them decide to do that?

As U.S. casualties have continued to drop, many people on the anti-Bush side of the aisle have begun to quietly panic in recent days over this question: "Could George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan have possibly been right about the surge?"

Simply put, the answer is no. The surge is not working and George W. Bush and Frederick Kagan were not right. Despite what right-wing blogs are saying, and despite what conservative observers are noting, the plunge in violence is actually the result of an Iraqi political decision made by and implemented by Iraqis—and the drop has little to do with the "surge"—an infusion of 30,000 troops (which wouldn’t fill a Major League stadium) into Baghdad, a city of six million people....

Daily Kos: The Real Story Behind the Falling Casualty Rate in Iraq

[Army_of_One]

Simply put..the answer is NO? Is that the best they can come up with? Wordy..what's WRONG with your people?

[Highwayman]

Here’s another explanation for the reduction in violence. They’ve simply run out of people to kill. That’s a novel idea. I wonder what he puts in his Kool-Aid.

The question that should be put to chairman of the House Appropriations Committee is where are those 13 must pass spending bills that were promised by the end of July before Congress took a recess that still aren’t done.

“One of the reason we’ve had incidents of violence, sectarian violence go down is because they are running out of people to kill,” said the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee Rep. David Obey (D.-Wisc.) at a National Press Club luncheon Monday afternoon.

“They’ve killed so many in so many areas, that there are fewer opportunity targets, if you want to put it that way, for each side,”

YouTube Video

[SGT T.]

As much as I hate to say it, some of the above quotes are correct. For example, al-Sadar's militia has suspended operations, but not because of our effectiveness against them. Because I can't get into specifics, it's because of a thing that they tried to pull a few months back in Karbala. It went bad for them, and made them look like the terrorists they are, so in an effort to re-organize and rearm, they are taking a little break.

And there are areas of Baghdad that were once mixed neighborhoods, sunni and shia, that are not mixed anymore at all. Now its a Sunni or a Shia neighborhood. Baghdad is a flash point, and just because its calming down does not mean that it's going to stay that way. I have no doubt that once US Forces withdraw, this country is going to tear itself apart.

[Army_of_One]

Thanks for the insight.