Hat tip: ConservativePunk (gotta love that name!)
We Need American Troops – Iraqi President Talabani in the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 21, 2005
There is no more important international issue today than the need to defeat the curse of terrorism. And as the first democratically elected president of Iraq, I have a responsibility to ensure that the world’s youngest democracy survives the inherently difficult transition from totalitarianism to pluralism. A transformation of the Iraqi state and Iraqi society is impossible without a sustained commitment of soldiers from the United States and other democracies.
Without foreign intervention, the transition in Iraq would have been from Saddam’s bloodstained hands to his psychopathic offspring. Instead, thanks to American leadership, Iraqis have been given an opportunity of peaceful, participatory politics. Contrary to the new conventional wisdom, Iraq and the history of 20th-century Europe demonstrate that force of arms can implant democracy in the most arid soil.
To contain these tensions, and to defend our young democracy, requires the support of American and other troops. Foreign forces are needed to train and equip the new Iraqi armed forces and to give Iraq its own counterterrorism capability. Only the United States and its closest allies are able to provide such assistance.
Creating these Iraqi forces has not been easy, but Iraqis have been undaunted by the difficulties. Every terrorist attack on Iraqi forces leads to a surge in military recruitment–the opposite of the appeasers’ myth that resisting terrorism causes more terrorism.
American forces are in Iraq at the invitation of the democratically elected government of Iraq, and with the backing of a United Nations Security Council resolution. Your soldiers are in my country because of your commitment to democracy.
Americans should be proud of what its soldiers have achieved. The presence of foreign forces has prevented a renewed civil war in Iraq–renewed because there has already been a civil war in Iraq. For 35 years, Saddam and his Baath Party made war on the Iraqi people. The liberation of Iraq ended that civil war.
Without American forces, the vision of American leadership and the quiet fortitude of the American people, Iraqis would be almost alone in the world. With its allies, the United States has provided Iraqis with an unprecedented opportunity. Iraqis have responded by enthusiastically embracing democracy and volunteering to fight for their country. By giving us the tools, your troops help us to defend Iraqi democracy and to finish the job of uprooting Baathist fascism.
Elections matter…. I doubt there would have been a democratically-elected President of Iraq to write this piece if John Kerry had been elected President. He wanted the Jan. 30 election delayed, and US troops to be withdrawn.
Elections matter….
(Related story – Update from the Iraqi Theatre in the War on Terror from Michael Yon, a truly embedded blogger.
Funny, I haven’t heard about this on CBS News. All I know from the MSM is that there is a car bomb in Iraq on days that news coverage of Katrina gets slow. Now, why is that?? I guess it is because they are ‘stuck on stupid.’)
-Bruce (GayPatriot)
You watch See BS news?
What about FauxNews, right wingprof? Are they part of the left wing conspiracy on that issue too? Just curious.
I agree with the sentiment that we need to keep a presence there until the situation is stabilized. The question is if we are willing to divert the resources to finish cleaning up the mess we started; or as homage to Powell if we are willing to finish buying our broken Pottery Barn merchandise.
Actually, wasn’t it John Kerry who mis-stated the Pottery Barn policy as, “You break it, you fix it?”
Not that I’d ever expect a billionaire gigolo to waste any time in a chain store… unless he was running for something and trying to appear “common.”
But, that aside, it’s nice that the Iraqis appreciate what we’re doing for them… even if most liberals think they’d be better off living under Saddam.
I think it was Colin Powell who stated the “pottery barn” remark.
As has been proven, however, this simply cannot be accepted as fact.
Pottery Barn has no such policy, so….therefore Powell couldn’t possibly have said it. Take that, you damn liberals. 🙂
BTW…the quote is “You break it, you own it!” Nothing about fixing anything later. That would change the meaning quite drastically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery_Barn_rule
Iraqi president thanking America is like Charlie McCarthy thanking Edgar Bergen…
That’s a cop out, Whatever. It’s a cop out that gives you the ability to simply dismiss anything actual Iraqi’s say because, obviously, if they agree with us they much not be expressing their own feelings but doing a ventriloquist thing.
The only possible proof of their free will is if they oppose the US. They *must* oppose the US. They have no choice but to oppose the US. Or else they are just puppets. (Does this mean that the Sunni minority are the only possible legitimate rulers in Iraq?)
We know this because John Kerry, hoping to be president of our nation, said so of Allawi.
Neither were the Iraqi elections fair and representative of the will of the actual Iraqi people. We know this because, in our heart of hearts, we *know* that we are all control freaks and would never risk someone with a mind of their own coming into power. This is proof. It doesn’t require actual facts, simply logic. We don’t have to show that elections were fixed or that the US approved candidates before they were listed or that the US bullies or intimidates those who were elected because we *know* that we’d never ever let them run their own lives or make their own decisions.
Because we don’t really believe in self-determination or freedom. Libs don’t even pretend to believe in those things and the Conservatives just lie about it.
It’s not surprising, Synova — it’s merely another example of how the left likes to belittle and deny diversity of thought. Just like Queer Patriot’s insistence that GayPatriot and GayPatriotWest aren’t gay, since they don’t toe the demanded gay line.
As Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore have repeatedly proven, the left and the Democratic Party view the Iraqi insurgents seeking to restore the Ba’athist regime and the Taliban as being on the side of right. For them to accept Iraqi freedom would be to come to grips with the true legacy of Saddam and the Taliban, and they cannot do it.
NDT…. you forgot to bring up Jane Fonda and presidential blowjobs….
Synova (#8)-
I think you’ve nailed it:
“My logic is superior to your facts.”
😛
It’s not Hanoi Jane, but her ex-hubby seems to be bucking for a cool nickname of his own. Pyongyang Ted?
“My logic is superior to your facts.”
Actually, I think the leftist credo is, “My dogma and prejudices are superior to your facts and logic because they make me feel good about myself.”
#7
Now that’s comedy.
I like all this self satisfying back slapping at the same time that the Saudi Foreign Minister is predicting a furthe downward spiral into Iraqui disintegration. We will have created Kurdistan, Shiastan and Sunistan.
Oh no Chandler, not more “Stans”!
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