Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Enough

After five years of obstruction, obfuscation, nay-saying, undermining and misleading the American people about the War on Terror, we now know the Democrats national security plan for the election. They're going to run on Bill Clinton's record!

Brendan Miniter offers some highlights for your consideration:

With that in mind, let us examine Mr. Clinton's war on terror. Some 38 days after he was sworn in, al Qaeda attacked the World Trade Center. He did not visit the twin towers that year, even though four days after the attack he was just across the Hudson River in New Jersey, talking about job training. He made no attempt to rally the public against terrorism. His only public speech on the bombing was a few paragraphs inserted into a radio address mostly devoted an economic stimulus package. Those stray paragraphs were limited to reassuring the public and thanking the rescuers, the kinds of things governors say after hurricanes. He did not even vow to bring the bombers to justice. Instead, he turned the first terrorist attack on American soil over to the FBI.

In his Fox interview, Mr. Clinton said "no one knew that al Qaeda existed" in October 1993, during the tragic events in Somalia. But his national security adviser, Tony Lake, told me that he first learned of bin Laden "sometime in 1993," when he was thought of as a terror financier. U.S. Army Capt. James Francis Yacone, a black hawk squadron commander in Somalia, later testified that radio intercepts of enemy mortar crews firing at Americans were in Arabic, not Somali, suggesting the work of bin Laden's agents (who spoke Arabic), not warlord Farah Aideed's men (who did not). CIA and DIA reports also placed al Qaeda operatives in Somalia at the time.

By the end of Mr. Clinton's first year, al Qaeda had apparently attacked twice. The attacks would continue for every one of the Clinton years.


You go read the whole thing.

Let's don't let the Clintonistas airbrush history.

As I watch this debate unfold, each time I think that the other side couldn't possibly sink any lower, I'm surprised again. It's ike watching a bad sit-com where the character gets caught in a lie and just keeps digging himself a deeper hole.

Instead of acting like leaders, Democrats, many of whom voted for the war, have scurried like scared rabbits at any sign of difficulty.

Iraq is where our military is engaging the jihad. Al Qaeda knows Iraq is the central front in the war. Saddam deserved to be gone whether he was connected to 9/11 or not. If we prevail there, we'll go a long way toward eliminating this scourge.

This week, someone chose to leak a snippet of the classified NIE. A NY Times article stated,"A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the September 11 attacks."

What the actual report said was,

The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep
resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for
the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves,
and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry
on the fight.

In other words, they've come to fight us there, and if we succeed, there will be fewer of them. Sounds like we ought to stay and slug it out.


11 Comments:

Blogger Madeleine said...

How are you feeling about the upcoming elections?

10:11 AM  
Blogger alwaysright said...

Hey, good to see you again. I always wondered how you found my little blog.

Re: the elections. If the Repubs lose the House and Senate, I think that would represent the US public bailing on Iraq.

That would be too bad, in my judgment. I believe I am the last remaining American who suppported the war in 2003, and still does. I believe we were justified in removing Saddam for a multitude of reasons besides WMD, and that the best hope for stability and a lasting peace in that part of the world, is the spread of freedom.

I say the R's hold both houses in a squeaker!

3:30 PM  
Blogger Madeleine said...

the best hope for stability and a lasting peace in that part of the world, is the spread of freedom.

From what I understand about that part of the world, freedom is not something that they hunger after because it's not a part of their culture.

Imagine if the US decided things were stable, the Iraqi people had a good handle on things and it was safe for us to get out ... some experts have said that the government the Iraqis would end up choosing would be remarkably close to what they already had or run by clerics, possibly with extremely conservative Muslim outlooks.

That's not the general American's view of freedom!

Plus - what about the independent study that found that the American presence in Iraq is actually creating more terrorists than peace in the region?
--
You were wondering how I found your blog? just by the random blog button on the blogger home page.

I want to find out more about the conservative point of view. Example: I am a liberal because I have a strong sense of right and wrong. I believe a person's worth is shown in his/her integrity, honesty and fair-handedness. I approach things from a moral perspective.

Amazingly, conservatives make the same claim about themselves! how is that possible??? I ask myself.

And that is why I like reading your blog and a few other conservative blogs out there.

What makes conservatives tick?

5:00 PM  
Blogger alwaysright said...

What you say may be true re: freedom, but the truth is, we don't know. It is equally possible, perhaps even more likely, that absent Iranian meddling, Iraq would set up a reasonable facsimile of democracy.

Kurdistan is already functionig quite well.

Regarding the study that claims we're creating more terrorists in Iraq, it is important to note that that same study also concluded that if we succeed in Iraq, it will be a serious blow to terrorist recruitment.

In the short run, any action we take againt the jihad is likely to anger radicals and be used for recruitment. In the long run, defeating that ideology with a better one (freedom) is our only hope.

Of course, if the experiment fails and Iraq turns into an actual enemy by choice, as opposed to by tyranny, then at least we'll know where they stand and we can set policy accordingly.

For example, look at Hamas in Palestine. They were voted in. They are avowed enemies of us and of Israel. We now have no illusions about where they stand. The international community has cut off funding for the Palestinian authority and the Palestinian people are now acccountable for their choice.

I think we should let them make their choices, and if they choose to be our enemy, they should pay a vey heavy price for that.

5:40 PM  
Blogger Madeleine said...

You're right about Kurdistan. On October 28, 2006 the Wall Street Journal featured an interview with
the president of Kurdistan.

But Barzani also says that with “America’s mentality and approach and regulations, we cannot win like this. There must be decisive action so the government can enforce the law and restore its prestige.”

I'm not seeing a lot of decisiveness aside from "Same old, same old" --I mean "Stay the course."

This war might just end it for the Repubs, and even they know it. Check out Vanity Fair's latest article on how Pub candidates are keeping their distance from Bush and the war:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/12/neocons200612

Tuesday night is going to be exciting!

9:08 AM  
Blogger Madeleine said...

Hmmm that link got truncated try

this

7:10 PM  
Blogger alwaysright said...

All the "neocons" quoted in the Vanity Fair story claim that Vanity Fair told them they wouldn't publish until AFTER the election. They also claim that they were misquoted and are demanding that Vanity Fair publish the actual manuscripts before the election.

Pubs will hold the House and the Senate.

As someone who has taken on his share of projects, my experience is that sometimes you do have to stay the course. Sometimes there is nothing you can do but keep your head down and keep slugging. I imagine most of the great accomplishments in history were made by people who just kept persevering long after everyone told them to give up. In Iraq, our goal is worhty and our cause is just. Hopefully, the American people still understand that.

7:41 PM  
Blogger Madeleine said...

Pubs will hold the House and the Senate.

Wish I'd made a money bet with you ;)

Americans made it pretty clear that they're tired of Repub shenanigans - not that they love the Dems, just that they hate them less.

They also claim that they were misquoted and are demanding that Vanity Fair publish the actual manuscripts before the election.

where did you hear/read this? I'd like to follow that story! VF has too much on the line to misquote and misrepresent people - wonder if they'll recant or stand by their story as written?

7:12 PM  
Blogger righterscramp said...

Boy were you ever wrong... you sound like the captain of the effing Titanic. Everything you believe is a complete and utter fabrication, must really suck!!
Shine On You Crazy Diamond....

6:00 PM  
Blogger alwaysright said...

About sixty thousand votes nationwide were the difference. I can take some consolation from the fact that Ned LaMont got his sorry ass kicked, and Kos made Joe Lieberman the second-most powerful man in America!

Among the people sharing your joy about the Democratic victory are Al Qaeda in Iraq and the supreme mullah in Iran.

So, congratulations, Dems, the War on Terror is now your problem, too. Just remember, the Dow's at a record high, unemployment's at a record low, and we haven't been attacked since 9/11. If you think the Dems can improve on that, well let's have at it!

5:09 PM  
Blogger righterscramp said...

There were many more other interested parties in the CT Senate battle than DKos. He focused on Lamont to some extent but he cast his eye to a much further field and only occassionally commented on CT. His boy was really Tester whom, I believe, will make a great Senator.Lieberman is very conflicted and the conventional wisdom is that he has no choice but to caucus with the Dems. With 12 Repug. seats up for grabs in '08 and only 3 vulnerable Dem seats he does not want to find himself in a minority position, not good for an egotistical windbag like Joe, no good at all. As for the WoT, hey you broke it, you own it. Most Dems are of the mindset that we would be better positioned if we had maintained a strong presence in Afganistan and pressured the 'stans in our search for Osama and his international, but limited, conspiracy, rather than take our eye off the ball and extend ourselves in a hopeless, feckless, irresponsible war in Iraq. That has always been the 'realists' position and I myself have stuck with that premise. As for the elections, it was a massacre... no question!

6:55 PM  

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