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[COMMENT: These issues are clouded by charge and counter-charge. I have been dismayed by the fairly consistent positive reports from people "on the ground" coming back from Iraq who are equally dismayed by the negatively slanted press reports here in the US about Iraq. You hear all about the alleged disaster, but nothing about the successes, all about the abuses when American troops misbehave, nothing about the kindness, the reaching out, the substantial support for local people given by our troops. And the gratitude of the local people. Maybe the French, German, English, and other troops do the same thing, but I suspect that the American troops are a breed unto themselves in this respect. And, I suspect, that is because of our latent Biblical background, very latent, to be sure, not open and unabashed. But there.
I am not a Bush fan, and I believe we went into Iraq the wrong way (Congress, not the President, has the responsibility for declaring war), and for the wrong reasons (we do not know how to implement a Biblical foreign - or domestic - policy). The neo-cons who more or less control the administration are socialists, and more interested in winning the next election than doing what is right. Perhaps Bush himself as well.
Furthermore, there are conflicting notions of freedom, and Bush's is the secular, "liberal democracy" sort, which is not Biblical and does not lead to real freedom. It will always end up in socialism and expanding government.
But I believe (cautiously) that Bush was right about the information at the time concerning the threat of Hussein against America. No serious WMD's have been found, but they are too easy to hide, so the evidence is not conclusive. It is nearly impossible to prove the non-existence of something. If the material below is correct, then Bush may have been right about the invasion.
But if it is true, why has not the Bush administration itself let this be known? Or has it?
In any event, we are there, and it would be a disaster if we
were to withdraw now leaving the Iraqi's quest for a decent life half-baked.
We must see it through. Iraq is not Germany or Japan. It is Iraq.
But they are human beings, many of whom respond to a chance at honest freedom.
Freedom is catching. Yes, even with all the terrible problems provided by
Islam. I hope that Christians will learn how to explain real freedom, in
both politics and personal life. E. Fox]
Date:
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Columnist Joel Mowbray has devoted significant time and energy to reviewing
post-war intelligence information coming out of Iraq, and his findings are
shocking.
Even more so, however, has been
the Big Media blackout of this information that goes a long way toward
vindicating the president.
According to Mowbray, the Pentagon commissioned an "after-action analysis
report" on Iraq. The 230-page "book-length report analyzed thousands of
Iraqi documents and interviews with over 100 officials of Saddam's regime."
The report details Saddam's active role in terrorism dating back to 1994
with the establishment of Al Qaeda-like terrorist training camps run by the
Fedayeen, which "trained some 7,200 Iraqis in the art of terrorism in the
first year alone." By 1998, these camps were training jihadists from Egypt,
Syria, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, and other Gulf states.
Then there is this statement from a summary of the Pentagon report in
Foreign Affairs magazine:
"In a
document dated May 1999, Saddam's older son, Uday, ordered preparations for
'special operations, assassinations, and bombings, for the
centers and traitor symbols in London, Iran and the self-ruled areas
[Kurdistan].' Preparations for 'Blessed July,' a regime-directed wave of
'martyrdom' operations against targets in the West, were well under way at
the time of the coalition invasion."
(I draw your attention to that last line.)
In June of
2004, one year after the invasion of Iraq,
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a stunning announcement that got
virtually no coverage here in the United States. Here is an excerpt from an
Associated Press report out of Kazakstan on June 19, 2004, about Putin's
statement:
"Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday his government warned
Washington that Saddam Hussein's regime was preparing attacks in the United
States and its interests abroad -- an assertion that appears to bolster
President Bush's contention that Iraq was a threat. .'After Sept. 11, 2001,
and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special
services . . . received information that officials from Saddam's regime
were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it,
against the U.S. military and other interests", Putin said.
Now, put yourself in President Bush's position. Three thousand Americans
have recently been murdered in downtown Manhattan by jihadists, and the
president of Russia tells you that Saddam is "preparing terrorist attacks in
the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other
interests."
We now know --
from captured Iraqi documents -- that Putin was telling the truth.
Yesterday I met with a retired Israeli general, a man who has been on the
frontlines of the war against terrorism for many years. Toward the
end of the conversation, I asked him why the United States has not been hit
again since September 11th. He said it could be strategy, but there is
evidence that the Islamists were shocked by President Bush's strong
reaction. They didn't believe we had the will to fight back. After all,
the U.S. response to a string of terrorist attacks, beginning with the 1993
(first) bombing of the World Trade Center towers, was to treat each incident
as an
unrelated criminal offense, rather than coordinated acts of war committed by
a common enemy. That mentality changed after September 11th.
The Israeli general I spoke
with said Bush is absolutely right - that by taking the war to
Islamofascists, we are preventing them from bringing the
war to us.
He said that was the lesson Israel has learned. Against this enemy, so
totally consumed with hatred and so determined to kill, the best
defense is a good offense.
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