A Mistake? Reposted

This is a post that I wrote a couple of months ago. It seemed a good idea to repost it today.

I keep hearing that 55% of Americans feel the war in Iraq was/is a mistake. First of all I take all such figures and polls with a very large grain of salt but it begs some questions. In what way was it a mistake? Most of Iraq is secure and peaceful. The reports that I have heard from the six returned soldiers that I personally know, paint a very different picture than the one we get on the daily news. They claim that most of the Iraqis, and the children in particular, are friendly and seem genuinely thankful to be out from under Saddam's thumb. The photo's and videos of the fall of his regime show a lot of people that seemed to be pretty pleased that he (Saddam) was gone. I also find it difficult to accept that the world would be better off today if Saddam were still in power. He definitely had WMD. We have found over 500 gas shells and removed a large amount of the yellow cake that Joe Wilson claimed wasn't there. I also keep hearing the war referred to as a "Failure" by the likes of Hillary Clinton (and most of the left), by what definition is this war a failure? We met the first objective in record time all the while being told we were in a quagmire by the main stream media. We have lost fewer than 3,000 troops in the 3 years we have been in Iraq and while every death is regrettable this is a remarkably small number. Certainly much smaller than the 10's to 100's of thousands the main stream media predicted. As to the number of enemy combatants killed, I frankly don't care. If they are taking up arms against our troops we should show the rest of the world what happens when you do and the civilian casualties have been far more the responsibility of the "insurgents" than they have our troops. The ridiculously overblown and hyped charges of torture and abuse at Abu Grahib and Gitmo are more a fantasy of the media than a reality. To call these events torture is similar to calling a spanking child abuse. I realize that some people consider spanking child abuse but they are largely fringe nuts that either have no children or whose children are spoiled and ill behaved, but I digress. The Iraqis have come out to vote, at great personal risk, 3 times now in numbers that we should strive for here. They are working toward a government that represents all of the people and have come a long way. Most of the dissent seems to be coming from outside agitators rather than a home grown movement. Any reasonably objective person must see that we have made significant progress in Iraq. And finally what do we stand to gain if we pull out before the job is done? All this will accomplish is to further embolden the terrorists with the proof that America has no backbone, a paper tiger as Osama called us after the Clintonian debacle in Mogadishu. We will be far less secure as a result in spite of the illogic of the left that would have you believe that by killing terrorists we are creating more terrorists. If that logic were true we'd all have been overrun by the Germans and Japanese in WWII. The further we pushed, the more that we killed, the nearer to victory we came, the more of our enemies to give up the fight rather than to continue to take up arms. This was particularly true of the Germans, but we did not face never ending hoards of Japanese at the end of the war either. In short our biggest mistake with Iraq may be in not having prosecuted this war far enough. Had we just bulldozed through Afghanistan to Iran and then to Iraq and Syria we just might have taught the bastards a lesson, that you don't fuck with us!I also hear with some frequency a claim that the administration is/has/continues to lie about this war but I've never gotten an answer, at least not a coherent one, when I've asked for examples. The WMD nonsense was never a lie as has been documented over and over. In referring back to statements made by President Bush and his advisors I find that things in Iraq have progressed pretty much along the lines that we were told it would. We were never told this was going to be quick or easy. In fact we have been told on any number of occasions that it was going to be long and difficult. We have been told all along that our troops would stand down as the Iraqis stood up and when this happens you can bet that the left is going to claim credit. Just as they continue to complain that President Bush has no plan, despite his explaining his plan many times, they continue to harp on the setbacks experienced as evidence that we can't win this war. Our military has never been defeated in war. Even in Vietnam the war was lost at home rather than on the battlefield. Only in the media and the fantasies of the left are we losing this war. Only those that refuse to accept that we are fighting an enemy that cannot be appeased and will break any and all agreements that they make can be opposed to this action. If you think that we can negotiate a long term peace with these people than you are dangerously naive. The objective of Islam is to subjugate the world and kill all non-believers. Nothing less than absolute success or complete failure is going to stop the violence. Every time they are beaten back they agree to a cease fire in order to allow themselves time to recover and rearm and then they are right back on the attack. This is not a recent trend but has been the case for literally thousands of years. If these polls are right and we wind up with a cut and run government I pray that the next event doesn't slaughter as many as we lost on 9/11, but I fear the toll will be much higher.

Why we must vote

In reading the posts on the left wing blogs and MSM sites I am struck by the utter contempt and hate that spews from them. While you do see some of that here and on other blogs like HA it is not nearly as prevalent or as mean. As Michelle so rightly points out in her latest book the left has become completely unhinged. They are dragging out all of the old long since debunked lies about President Bush, and republicans in general, avoiding for the most part any substantive statements on the Kerry quotes all the while accusing republicans of trying to change the subject. I truly fear what could become of our great country if these people actually regain the power they desire. Endless, pointless and wasteful investigation into allegations that have already been disproved. Weakness shown on a front where none can be tolerated. A ruined economy and a weakened military when our country will least be able to afford either. As poor a job as you might think the republicans have done the democrats would be far worse. No direction, no plan, and only surrender. Truly a nightmare of unprecedented proportion. This is why we must vote. This is why we can not trust the democrats with real power again. They are no longer morally fit to govern.

Kerry Belittles U.S. Troops

John Kerry A Liberals Liberal

I can hardly believe this whole situation. John Kerry sticks his foot in his month and rather than apologize to those he defames he tries to blame "The Republican Attack Machine" for "Distorting" his comments. Listen in and tell me if he sounds like he is trying to tell a joke? Has anyone heard anybody distort these statements?
http://www.kfi640.com/cc-common/mlib/616/10/616_1162269270.mp3

Obviously Karl Rove put these words into his mouth. Since he is a veteran he could never have said this.

Come on now folks. Just check any number of leftist blogs and you will see that this is the prevailing attitude regarding our fine men and women in the military.

What it means to be a conservative (at least to me)

In reflecting on this up coming election I have been asked to define my conservative beliefs.
Number one on the list is that I believe that the government is far too large and intrusive. I work hard to make a living and I deserve representation that spends my tax dollars wisely. It is not a function of the government to redistribute the wealth I have earned to others that have less. All people deserve equal opportunity and, for the most part, in America they have it. I do not oppose helping those that cannot help themselves but far too many on the dole are healthy capable persons that should be self reliant. It is not the responsibility of the government to see to my health care or retirement. I am far more confidant in my ability to provide these things than I am in the government.

Personal freedoms are another huge area that defines my beliefs. We have given up far too many rights to the federal government. In spite of the reality of enforcement the Feds have no right or business dictating to the states what can or cannot be done or taught in schools. These issues should (and used to be) left up to the local values of the communitees that support these schools and the parents of the children being taught there. They are way out of line with laws such as the McCain - Feingold act which clearly violate the bill of rights.

I have a profound belief in the free market. If you offer a product or service that the public deems to be valuable your success will be limited only by your work ethic. Business, no matter how large, is not "evil". Only people can be good or evil.

The top issues I vote for are lower taxes, national security, and preserving our basic freedoms.

Why this idiotic blame game?

When former presidents Carter and Clinton engaged in bilateral talks with N. Korea they gave all sorts of concessions and incentives to them in order to secure a promise that the Norks would forgo nuclear weapons. The Norks violated this agreement from the very beginning. The Bush administration has insisted on multi-lateral talks with 5 other nations involved in the hopes of accomplishing the same goals, but with no success as the Norks refuse to talk unless it is one on one. The Clinton agreement was hopelessly naive but the inflexibility of the Bush administration will produce no fruit either because the problem and the blame does not rest with us.
Simply put the Norks are going to do what they are going to do. These people are criminals writ large. They counterfeit US dollars, they smuggle drugs, they steal and sell technology to terrorists and they have absolutely no intention of giving up their nuclear program. Sure they would be very happy to extort more booty from the United States in exchange for more promises that they have no intention of keeping. They would put on a happy face, agree to stop testing, and then, as soon as it became expedient to do so, once again reveal that they had broken their promises and blame us for "making them do it".
The Norks are like a spoiled child that craves attention that has a bully to protect them (China). As long as China and Russia coddle this brat it will be impossible to take the only action that would end this madness. Korea needs to be re-unified as a democratic society. Until this is done there will be no peace and no safety, no matter who is in charge here.

Foley and the Dems

Let's get a few of the facts out that the MSM is distorting to it's own purpose.
#1 All of the pages are at least 16 and all of the reports I have read state that they were former pages when Foley started to contact them with his inappropriate IM's which means that they were more likely 17 or 18 at the time. Inappropriate? You Bet! Perverted? For sure! Illegal? Doubtful. Pedophilia? Definitely not.
#2 None of the truly disturbing things were brought to light until very recently. In other words the leadership of the republicans in congress had taken every appropriate action by telling him to knock it off when the "overly friendly" Emails were brought to their attention.
#3 As I said in point #1 all of the alleged victims were already former pages when this occurred. This means that he was not using his power or influence over them in order to satisfy his perversions.
#4 The Democrats want it both ways. They say that the leadership should have been monitoring the situation closer and should have known about this. Yet when a republican aid finds Emails in unprotected files and publishes them they scream and stomp their feet and hold their breath until they turned blue and force him to resign.
#4 Under similar circumstances in the past with one of their own they called such actions a "witch hunt" and claimed it was no big deal. Consensual sex between 2 adults. No one questioned why the leaders at the time (Tip O'Neal) Hadn't done something to protect these children even though he may have had as much as 10 years warning.
And they dare to call us hypocrites!