Post #125

Subject: It's 2008 -- thangs are going great! [rolleyes]

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2007/12/21/success_against_the_axis

Charles Krauthammer, in his “Success Against the Axis” column, Friday, December 21, 2007, said, “Just four months after 9/11, George Bush identified Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil" and declared that defanging these rogue regimes was America's most urgent national security task. Bush will be judged on whether he succeeded.”

No, Bush will be judged on the War on Terror. His “axis of evil” speech will be seen as a misguided framing of what our most urgent national security task is.

Bill Richardson has it right:

http://www.richardsonforpresident.com/issues/iraq

“Our military presence in Iraq is prolonging the violence, costing us more than $10 billion a month, and distracting us from the war against Al Qaeda. George Bush's "surge" has suppressed some of the violence, at least temporarily, but it has failed to bring about political reconciliation. Our troops have done everything we've asked them to do -- but they cannot win someone else's civil war. Now it is up to the Iraqis. We need to get our troops out so that a new political process can begin. … The longer we stay, the more people die, the further the situation deteriorates, and the more damage we do both to our military and to our reputation. Only when we are out of this quagmire can we refocus on the real war against Al Qaeda -- the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11, and who are still headquartered along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border -- not in Iraq.”

And….

"Overwhelming majorities of Iraqis, both Shia and Sunni, oppose the presence of US troops in Iraq and believe that US troops are more a cause of violence than a solution to it. Our presence in Iraq fuels the insurgency, strengthens Al Qaeda, and distracts us from the urgent task of defeating the real terrorists who attacked this country on 9-11. It's time for a phased and coordinated, but rapid, withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq, and Governor Richardson has a realistic plan to do it." – Lieutenant General Robert G. Grad, Jr. (USA, Ret.)

But Charles Krauthammer, in his “Success Against the Axis” column, Friday, December 21, 2007, is completely wrong when he says that a “United States permanent military presence in the region and a close cooperative relationship with the most important country in the Middle East heartland [is] a major strategic achievement.”

Huh? Why do they – the terrorists, the jihadists, the Islamic extremists, Al-Qaeda of Osama Bin Laden – hate us?

Because WE are over THERE. As Pat Buchanan said, in his September 1, 2006, column “Islamo-fascism?:” “Al-Qaida appears to exist for one purpose: Plot and perpetrate mass murder to terrorize Americans and Europeans into getting out of the Islamic world.”

How is a permanent military presence a major strategic achievement? Does anybody really believe that a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq will calm Osama?

The War on Terror is a race against time – we need to convince those who want to do us harm that there is a better way BEFORE they do us harm. So, a “win” in Iraq does not translate into a “win” in the War on Terror.

Now, we will maintain a footprint in the Middle East until they run out of oil – or we shake our addiction. But that is not – and should not be – a military footprint. Why do neo-cons continue to push a theory that our own military deems “counterproductive?”

Charles Krauthammer, in his “Success Against the Axis” column, said, “On North Korea and Iran, with no real options at hand, the Bush administration heads to the finish line doing what Senator George Aiken once suggested for Vietnam: Declare victory and go home. With no good options available, those decisions are entirely understandable. But if Bush or his successor does an Aiken on Iraq, where success is a real option, history will judge him severely.”

History WILL judge George W. Bush severely – he took his eye off the ball. There is an atomic bomb with the name “George W. Bush” being built out there – but NOT in Baghdad.