Walking away: of warriors and fools

By now most of you would have heard George Bush’s speech about the new strategy in Iraq, to summarize it clear and hold. He wants to boost the troop levels by 20,000 US and Iraqi forces would start from one end of Baghdad, clear it of insurgents bit by bit and hold it, preventing the scumbags from returning, something they have not done in the past.

President Bush also stressed, unlike in the past, it will not be open ended engagement, the Iraqis will have to start pulling their weight, and if they don’t he’ll leave them be, this is their last chance. A brief look at the, shock-horror, opposing views.

Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, declared: "In choosing to escalate the civil war, the President virtually stands alone." The language was as fierce from the President's own party. "I think this speech given last night by this President represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam - if it's carried out," Chuck Hagel, a Republican Senate foreign relations committee member, told the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. "I will resist it."

Voicing concern about Mr Bush's vow to "seek out and destroy" Iranian and Syrian networks of support for insurgents in Iraq, the committee's chairman, Joseph Biden, a Democrat, said Mr Bush lacked congressional authority to extend the war beyond Iraqi borders. "We all hoped and prayed that the President would present us with a plan that would make things better," Senator Biden said. "Instead, we heard a plan to escalate the war, not only in Iraq, but possibly into Iran and Syria as well. It's a tragic mistake."

The Democrats, led by Pelosi have been carping publicly from the sidelines for a timetable, Pelosi herself has been banging on about wanting justification before congressional approval, no blank cheque to the president, blah blah. In the beginning, some detractors said there were too few troops, then it was too many, now it’s too little too late, I wouldn’t go shopping with these people if I were you. Well Bush isn’t asking for a blank cheque, he has given you a plan and a timetable, take it or leave it. Granted the timetable, is not a “Troops home by Christmas 2007” agreement, but you give me any war fought in history where there was a timetable drawn up prior to the war, that was stuck to.

As for the whining about escalating the war beyond Iraq’s borders without congressional authority, wake up you fools; you just got a missile shot through the window of your embassy in Greece. You are at war, everywhere in the world, I’m not calling for an invasion of Greece, but if insurgents are getting arms, support and infiltrating from Iran and Syria, chasing them to the border and stopping there to call the UN and Congress to start voting and drawing up flowcharts with timetables is not an option.

"De-escalate, investigate, troops home now", this was recently chanted by Cindy Sheehan and her band of professional parasites. This pretty much summarizes the Democratic strategy all along. I don’t know why they bother carping on about plans, cheques and timetables, it’s obvious that they just want to run home as quick as possible and hide under the bed until the nasty men go away.

Iraqi insurgents last night threatened to send President Bush’s 22,000 new troops home in body bags as details emerged of the new Baghdad crackdown at the core of his “surge” strategy.

You can read this as, we are crapping ourselves just thinking of the fire and pestilence these infidels will be soon raining upon us. I for one have every confidence in the ability of coalition forces, I have yet to hear of a single major battle that American soldiers have lost to the insurgents in Iraq, every single time the politicians have let these warriors loose, they have mauled and torn their enemy to pieces. They are professional soldiers, they don’t hide behind women and children, they don’t plant bombs outside schools and roads, and they don’t kidnap civilians and slit their throats by night. They continue to fight with their hands tied behind their backs, and win, against an enemy that is allowed any and every dirty trick in the book. If we want someone to approve, perhaps we should ask them if they are happy with their rules of engagement and if we could get the hell off their backs and let them do what’s needed. And back in Australia prime minister Howard is backing George Bush’s plan, what about the opposition?

The Federal Opposition says excessive action by the US to stem Iranian and Syrian involvement in Iraq could escalate the conflict in the region.

Can somebody give Kevin Rudd a gold star, a hug and tell him how special he is and to go back to his seat, on the plus side he wasn’t insisting on redeploying to Afghanistan and Indonesia like the previous leader. Perhaps he didn’t have anything to add to the debate but decided to come up with something obvious to tell the media.

Tony Blair, gets it, unfortunately the leftist fringe on his side of the sandbags is pushing him out to the pastures and simultaneously taking down the sandbags.

Britain must decide whether it wants to remain a military power, ready to engage in “hard” conflicts such as Iraq and Afghanistan, or be relegated to a softer peacekeeping role Tony Blair said today. The fight against al Qa’eda-style terrorism, which he likened to revolutionary Communism in its early and most militant phase”, would take a generation.

“Terrorism cannot be defeated by military means alone, but it can’t be defeated without it.” Mr Blair said his choice was for Armed Forces prepared to engage in “this difficult, tough, challenging campaign, to be warfighters as well as peacekeepers”; keeping a strong alliance with the US, and being willing to “fight terrorism and pay the cost of that fight wherever it may be”.

This applies to all of us, if you choose the role of peacekeeper, then be prepared to “redeploy” from conflict to conflict when the going gets tough. Just remember this didn’t start in New York City or the London underground or Bali, our politicians might think in a 4 year cycle, but the enemy doesn’t, they remember Munich, they remember the embassies in Tehran and Kenya, they remember Lebanon, Mogadishu [though Mogadishu II might not be their fondest recollection], you can walk away all you want, they’ll just come walking after you.