Good News from Iraq

You may want to have a look at this report of the Iraq Survey Group. Some members of the group are known as “Gold Star Families” as they have lost a child in the war effort.

Excerpts from the report's summary:

The authors of this report believe that winning the war in Iraq – not “solving the problems” of Iraq – is essential to the United States commitment to the war against terrorism. Defeat in Iraq, which we define as an immediate or near-immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, would have devastating geopolitical consequences, embolden Islamic terrorist groups and send the message that the United States lacks the will to see through its commitment to defeat those who employ terrorism, bloodshed, fear and violence to advance oppression and tyranny. (...)

The principal mission of Operation Iraqi Freedom was to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and thereby eliminating his ability to provide safe harbor to terrorists, halt his development of weapons of mass destruction programs and prevent him from aiding and abetting terrorist organizations with aims to attack the United States and our interests. This core function of the mission in Iraq has been a resounding success.

Coalition Forces have wreaked havoc upon the Islamic terrorist groups who have waged a guerilla campaign since Saddam’s military was defeated. This includes the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the one time leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, who traveled to Iraq in early 2002 – more than one year before Operation Iraqi Freedom had begun. Over 5,000 terrorists have been

killed and eliminated as potential combatants against the United States.

In addition, on Nov. 3, 2006 the New York Times reported that Saddam Hussein’s regime had an active nuclear weapons research program, and that analysts believed Saddam was as little as oneyear away from having the ability to produce a usable nuclear weapon. We no longer need worry about such a weapon being manufactured and provided to a terrorist organization, or used by Saddam’s regime himself against U.S. interests.

The substantial revenues from Iraq’s oil fields will no longer be available pools of funds to Islamic extremist groups. Hussein funded rewards for the families of suicide bombers in Israel as a means to encourage terrorist activity. His decision to have his Baathist Party operatives infiltrate and gain control of Islamic extremists demonstrated that he intended further terrorist mischief.

Not really the kind of stuff you read in the German media...

Comments

[kid charlemagne]

OT: Berlin seems to be moving in the direction of Paris. http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/archiv/17.11.2006/2903872.asp

Bald Französische Verhältnisse in Deutchland? Well, not so soon, but as long as Gutmenschen are setting the tone, things will only get worse.

[Scott_H]

This is OT, too, but I'm curious. We know what Französische Verhältnisse and Amerikanische Verhältnisse are (without getting into specifics, just think "bad"), but what exactly are German Verhältnisse and how are they different (besides the obvious implication that they are "superior" to the others)?

More OT, I haven't seen any spin regarding that incredible admission by the NYTimes about Iraq's WMD program. It basically validates everything the "right" has been saying all along. Could it be that this is just one of those things that most folks (well, at least 51%, anyway) hope goes away if they simply ignore it?

[Loddar]

first of all, the resource of this article, moveamericaforward.org, is administed by rightist. so to me it appears weird, you complain about the leftists in germany and counter it with rightist media from the u.s.

Note from David: OHMYGOD - Rightist!!! How could we... Heartfelt apologies!

second is, that this article is blank euphemism. "Coalition Forces have wreaked havoc upon the Islamic terrorist groups who have waged a guerilla campaign since Saddam’s military was defeated." yeah, sure. lol. they only kidnap or kill hundreds each day.

It's official now, thanks to Loddar: no terrorists killed so far.

"... prevent him from aiding and abetting terrorist organizations with aims to attack the United States and our interests." do you really believe saddam supported islamists, who want to establish theocracy?

Note from David: Saddam aided terrorists organizations - that's not a believe, it's a fact.

he was a dictator, a sunnit, and he would have lost his power to shiite mullahs. today iraq is a playground for terrorists. a breeding-place.
"Defeat in Iraq, which we define as an immediate or near-immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, would have devastating geopolitical consequences" That is the only sentence i agree with. and it is not an american issue anymore, unfortunately. the whole world should support the pacifying process in iraq, especially europe, russia, china and the moderate arabic states.

Note from David: OK, let's start the "pacifying process". Germans to the front, as in Afghanistan!

[joe]

Scott,

While I do not disagree with your analysis, I do disagree with the percentages you cite. Only about 23% of Americans self identify as liberals. This means those who identify themselves as either independents or moderates were the ones who voted to give Congress to the demos.

I had the pleasure of spending an evening with my very best friend this week. He is what I would call a neo moderate. When one examines his positions on issues they are conservative yet he does not consider himself to be conservative. I have no idea who he voted for in the Senate race in Virginia as it did not come up and I consider it not something which needed to be shared.

What was interesting from my perspective were the following. He stated he felt 75% of the media was liberal and bias against both conservatives and Republicans. I asked him to identify the 25% that were not. He had difficulty with that and ended up citing mostly local news organizations. The second thing was his strong belief that the US needed to get out of Iraq. And finally what was most disappointing and mildly depressing is how uninformed he was on key issues facing America. His knowledge was limited to the line taken by the M$M.

Much like the demos, he could identify problems but had no solutions other than one should not depend on government. He believes our freedoms are being taken from us not by the Republicans but by the Left and we are heading for socialism.

So at the end of the evening, I considered him to be someone who voted for the demos.

My final question to him was how many Americans did he think would have to die before the nation realized it was in a generational war. He stated he was not sure. My response was that it was obvious that 3,000 was not enough.