A Dose For War Critics ...
... courtesy of Deputy Assistant to the President Peter Wehner, and courtesy of Hugh Hewitt. And as Hugh points out, this is the money quote of Mr. Wehner's piece in the Opinion Journal.
[C]ritics of the war are demonstrating a peculiar eagerness to declare certain matters settled. We certainly face difficulties in Iraq--but we have seen significant progress as well. In 2005, Iraq's economy continued to recover and grow. Access to clean water and sewage-treatment facilities has increased. The Sunnis are now invested in the political process, which was not previously the case. The Iraqi security forces are far stronger than they were. Our counterinsurgency strategy is more effective than in the past. Cities like Tal Afar, which insurgents once controlled, are now back in the hands of free Iraqis. Al Qaeda's grip has been broken in Mosul and disrupted in Baghdad. We now see fissures between Iraqis and foreign terrorists. And in the aftermath of the mosque bombing in Samarra, we saw the political and religious leadership in Iraq call for an end to violence instead of stoking civil war--and on the whole, the Iraqi security forces performed well. These achievements are authentic grounds for encouragement. And to ignore or dismiss all signs of progress in Iraq, to portray things in what Norman Podhoretz has called "the blackest possible light," disfigures reality.
As the president pointed out today, during a brief encounter with reporters, "People forget that just over three months ago, 12 million people spoke up and said 'we want a democracy.'" That is the other point that should have been made. But, Mr. Wehner, I think, has spoken clearly to the detractors of the war. And this response is directly addressed to "Messrs. Fukuyama, Buckley, and Will." These are the conservative detractors whose best "asset" in the war effort up to this point is play "armchair quarterback," and criticize the efforts up until now.
Now both Marcie and I have our gripes with the president. We have made no bones about that. We think he's wrong on immigration reform, his choice of Harriet Miers as a Supreme Court appointee, we dislike Julie Myers to head up ICE, we're not too happy with the Medicare reforms, and we really don't like how he seems to be weak on retorts to his detractors. But let's face some hard facts right now: WE support this president on any and all endeavors. People may call us "Bushies" for that, but it's not true. We give respect where it is due, and all due respect is deserved for the President of the United States. And yes, to inform our critics, we did give respect to President Clinton. We just didn't like him very much. There's a difference, and I hope our critics will recognize that.
But when it comes to the war we are 100% supportive of the president and the war effort this nation is involved in. Period. End of story; end of file. Deal with it, but both of us have relatives in the military right now, and there isn't anyway we're going to be convinced that this war effort is wasted; worthless because it didn't go the way that it was planned. Guess what, geniuses? It's a WAR! The best laid plans of mice and men are destined to go awry when you introduce chaos to the situation. So, no, it didn't go the way it was planned. But we are winning. Not only have we won the fight (yes, we are still being attacked, but the terrorists have next-to-nothing left in their bag of tricks) but we are winning the minds of those in that country that have never had freedom before.
And maybe that's something the critics would like to keep in mind when they sit down to put finger to keyboard. This was not going to be easy, and that was made apparent. It was going to be long, and that was made clear. This wasn't going to be finished up in time for Martha's meatloaf, and digesting it over Chris Matthews worthless waste of time. This is a war, after all. Our troops expect our support, and they dislike it when their commander-in-chief, and his administration, is shown the utter disrespect by their critics. Messrs Fukuyama, Buckley, and Will--to my knowledge--have never served in the military, let alone a combat zone. While respected among the conservative base, the base is growing tired of this sort of infighting.
Enough is enough. Knock it off. Let our troops and our president do their jobs. Criticism comes after the war is over, but while it's going on, neither need to hear this, read this, or watch this. Let the administration do it's job, and for the "professional" critics out there (like those three singled out) do yours; beat on the idiots in politics.
Publius II
... courtesy of Deputy Assistant to the President Peter Wehner, and courtesy of Hugh Hewitt. And as Hugh points out, this is the money quote of Mr. Wehner's piece in the Opinion Journal.
[C]ritics of the war are demonstrating a peculiar eagerness to declare certain matters settled. We certainly face difficulties in Iraq--but we have seen significant progress as well. In 2005, Iraq's economy continued to recover and grow. Access to clean water and sewage-treatment facilities has increased. The Sunnis are now invested in the political process, which was not previously the case. The Iraqi security forces are far stronger than they were. Our counterinsurgency strategy is more effective than in the past. Cities like Tal Afar, which insurgents once controlled, are now back in the hands of free Iraqis. Al Qaeda's grip has been broken in Mosul and disrupted in Baghdad. We now see fissures between Iraqis and foreign terrorists. And in the aftermath of the mosque bombing in Samarra, we saw the political and religious leadership in Iraq call for an end to violence instead of stoking civil war--and on the whole, the Iraqi security forces performed well. These achievements are authentic grounds for encouragement. And to ignore or dismiss all signs of progress in Iraq, to portray things in what Norman Podhoretz has called "the blackest possible light," disfigures reality.
As the president pointed out today, during a brief encounter with reporters, "People forget that just over three months ago, 12 million people spoke up and said 'we want a democracy.'" That is the other point that should have been made. But, Mr. Wehner, I think, has spoken clearly to the detractors of the war. And this response is directly addressed to "Messrs. Fukuyama, Buckley, and Will." These are the conservative detractors whose best "asset" in the war effort up to this point is play "armchair quarterback," and criticize the efforts up until now.
Now both Marcie and I have our gripes with the president. We have made no bones about that. We think he's wrong on immigration reform, his choice of Harriet Miers as a Supreme Court appointee, we dislike Julie Myers to head up ICE, we're not too happy with the Medicare reforms, and we really don't like how he seems to be weak on retorts to his detractors. But let's face some hard facts right now: WE support this president on any and all endeavors. People may call us "Bushies" for that, but it's not true. We give respect where it is due, and all due respect is deserved for the President of the United States. And yes, to inform our critics, we did give respect to President Clinton. We just didn't like him very much. There's a difference, and I hope our critics will recognize that.
But when it comes to the war we are 100% supportive of the president and the war effort this nation is involved in. Period. End of story; end of file. Deal with it, but both of us have relatives in the military right now, and there isn't anyway we're going to be convinced that this war effort is wasted; worthless because it didn't go the way that it was planned. Guess what, geniuses? It's a WAR! The best laid plans of mice and men are destined to go awry when you introduce chaos to the situation. So, no, it didn't go the way it was planned. But we are winning. Not only have we won the fight (yes, we are still being attacked, but the terrorists have next-to-nothing left in their bag of tricks) but we are winning the minds of those in that country that have never had freedom before.
And maybe that's something the critics would like to keep in mind when they sit down to put finger to keyboard. This was not going to be easy, and that was made apparent. It was going to be long, and that was made clear. This wasn't going to be finished up in time for Martha's meatloaf, and digesting it over Chris Matthews worthless waste of time. This is a war, after all. Our troops expect our support, and they dislike it when their commander-in-chief, and his administration, is shown the utter disrespect by their critics. Messrs Fukuyama, Buckley, and Will--to my knowledge--have never served in the military, let alone a combat zone. While respected among the conservative base, the base is growing tired of this sort of infighting.
Enough is enough. Knock it off. Let our troops and our president do their jobs. Criticism comes after the war is over, but while it's going on, neither need to hear this, read this, or watch this. Let the administration do it's job, and for the "professional" critics out there (like those three singled out) do yours; beat on the idiots in politics.
Publius II
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 11:56 PM
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