The US Military today turned security over to the Iraqis in Karbala, only 40 miles south of my old stomping grounds, making that the eighth of eighteen provinces that now provide indigenous security. That's cool. We're making progress.
Although it's too early to be sure if it's a trend, the number of American military deaths is the lowest in two years. That's cool. We're making progress.
Despite the death of Abu Risha last month, Ramadi is trending toward peace. A recent parade was held in honor of Abu Risha. Troop and civilian deaths are way down. That's cool. We're making progress.
Which has me confused. Why aren't the Democrats in full overdrive--as they usually are at junctures such as this--trying to sabotage the effort? Careful...maybe they are...
My observation, albeit unscientific, while I was in Iraq was this: something goes good, like an election, and then the American media finds something negative to say about George W. Bush, and then, boom! Roadside bomb, car bomb, and rocket attacks suddenly increase. (Terrorists have satellite television.) That used to just piss me off.
Then John Murtha came along and made all sorts of brazen and baseless allegations, and the whole country went to crap. We're just recovering. That really sucked, and it still does.
I guess a few days ago, the Democrats did attempt a bit of sabotage, but it didn't seem to work. A recently tabled resolution before congress to censure Turkey for genocide that occurred nearly a century ago makes no sense unless one realizes its geopolitical ramifications.
Having failed miserably to force a US retreat in Iraq, House Democrats and their skittish Republican counterparts have now resorted to asymmetrical political warfare against President Bush, his administration and US military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan.I'm all for being finished in Iraq. We should have never been there. But we can't just sabotage every good effort to achieve liberty among the Iraqi people.
About 70% of all supplies supporting current US combat operations flow through Turkey. Its strategic location has made the air base at Incirlik a vital lifeline to the US military. It doesn't take a legal scholar to articulate the implications to Iraq or Afghanistan if Turkey denied access to Incirlik.
I don't think we should rest on our laurels just yet, though. The enemy may still be combining in an attempt to scuttle the liberty process there. Al Qaeda, you think? Heck no! The Democrats in Congress!
7 comments:
This may be the craziest thing Frank has ever written. The only thing the Democrats have done to sabotage President Bush is to let him lead the Army and Marines over the cliff without even trying to stop him.
Rep. Murtha (and Time magazine, which broke the story) didn't tell ordinary Iraqis anything they didn't already know. The recent Blackwater hearings didn't, either. Americans can gun down people whenever they like and get away with it-- it's not against any of our rules, you know.
What about the Armenian genocide? Maybe it's past time to send a strongly worded letter to the Ottoman Empire? Stupid, but just special interest politics at work-- lots of Armenian-Americans in California.
The truth is, Turkey is only fighting the war on terror. The PKK terrorists have actually attacked Turkey, that's not in dispute. Their invasion of Iraq is in self-defense, so it's legal where America's invasion was not.
Progress in Iraq? Have you read the latest quarterly report from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR)? It's long but contains many interesting nuggets of information amid the sugar-coated statistics, and cheerleading for the so-called "surge."
For example, SGIR inspectors couldn't go to most of the projects they were supposed to inspect. Even with bodyguards, it would be too dangerous. So they set up a shop of remote sensing analysts in Arlington, VA to inspect using satellite imagery!
Armenian genocide...it may be past time, but come on, you really CAN'T see how doing it NOW is sabotaging the war effort?
Signed,
Crazy Frank
Look past the GOP talking points and you'll see Turkey is not necessary to the logistical support for the Iraq occupation.
You can fly directly from Germany to Baghdad. Critical supplies such as fuel have to go by road from Kuwait, and now that Anbar is bought and paid for we can run convoys from Jordan more easily.
The only Turkish complication is their invasion of northern Iraq (aka Kurdistan). Nancy Pelosi had nothing to do with that.
I submit that if the Dems wanted to stop the occupation of Iraq, all they have to do is not make the appropriations. Bush can't veto a bill that Congress doesn't pass.
But Turkey is currently being USED for a great deal of logistical support. Are you suggesting that wouldn't be hard to change?
Incirlik Air Base has always been nice to have, but now there are US airbases in Iraq. It's unnecessary.
I know the GOP just wants a stick to beat the Democrats with, but why bother? They have no bones left to break.
1. when is the right moment to recognize the armenien genocide? 2 years ago, in 2 years, in 3 months and 5 days?
is there a interdependence between the recognition and geopolitical considerations? is it "bad timing"? that would be very cynical.
how would you feel, if you were a jew and germany would say: holocaust? there was no holocaust!
2. i think, that turkey was not amused about the proposal to divide iraq into (3) seperate countries (which was discussed in the us senate in september). they will never allow an independent "iraq kurdistan". i do not think, that the (announced) turkish invasion of northern iraq is about catching pkk terrorists (most of them are not in iraq, there are in turkey).
with the occupation of that area, turkey will try to prevent the kurds, from "building a nation". and that invasion will not stabilize the situation in iraq.
if you have such good allies, do you need saboteurs?
IT FALLS ON YOU
"He´s fucking faking that he´s dead,"
So said the young marine
Before two gunshots to the head:
So videotape has seen.
You saw the tape, and so did I,
Such murders, in a war
Come commonplace, no infamy
Especial, wide nor far;
Yet it did not get broadcast long,
Civilians so protested
Vituperative, the message strong,
Because the scene suggested
That soldiers of these USA
Like any soldiers are
In league with savagery when they
Participate in war.
The journalist as shot the tape
Received from far and wide
Death threats--civilians, you escape
Awhile but cannot hide.
The leveling of neighborhoods,
The raping of young children,
Routine the pilfering of goods,
All deeds for which no gildering,
These rest upon your stupid souls,
Exporting, by war´s means,
Domestic hatreds--on the doles
Compounded yet the liens.
Murders in war, if not routine
Belie the commonplacer
Deaths of civilians--war´s machine
Of beauty is defacer.
The little girl, all prettified
Dressed in her schoolgirl skirt,
Legs crushed, war wound tore open wide,
A dead thing in the dirt.
It falls upon you, O who love
To view the cause as noble,
Aggressive war--but not enough
In Basra or in Kabul
To justify that lily-white
The hands you love to wash so
Are sinless, even though they quite
Applaud the big kibosh so.
So you love censorship, but though
Your hand felt not the trigger,
It was your deed, and more you know
Than merely one sand nigger.
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