Passing Thoughts On A Lazy Sunday
This week we had a victory in the GWOT (Global War On Terror, for the less blog-nuanced) when two f-16 successfully dispatched Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to meet Allah firsthand. And there was much in terms of celebrating, and patting of each other's backs on the "starboard" side of the aisle (if I may use "starboard," to quote my better half). And rightly so as we have been the strongest on the prosecution of this war.
So is it any wonder that those who are reminding everyone that the war is far from over, and not to get too cocky is the side that has been weakest on the war?
Yes I am making a funny here, but I am also trying to make a point. We have stood firmly in our mission to A) Deal decisively with al-Qaeda, and B) Disrupt or help eradicate terror groups elsewhere. And we have done that quite well. In Afghanistan approximately 25 million people no longer live under the rule of the Taliban, or fear its iron-fisted enforcers in al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden, if still alive, is on the run; he may be in another country like Pakistan, or Iran, or possibly even Sudan again, but I can assure our readers that he does not hang his turban long in any of those nations.
And this goes to the heart of al-Zarqawi's death. For the better part of a year, al-Zarqawi has been the virtual face of al-Qaeda. He is who the Iraqis feared most because of how he announced his presence when he arrived in town. He was brutal, to say the least, and seemed to relish the opportunity to take heads of those who opposed him. Typical thuggery. His loss was seen as a good victory in the war, but one could not tell that from the Democrats who paraded out and announced this was a good thing to have occurred.
But each and everyone of them had either a plastered smile on their faces, or a dour expression. You could assume by how they sounded and looked that they were not happy about the death of al-Zarqawi. They look at this sort of an accomplishment as a political opportunity, but they have yet to figure out how to "exploit" it. Here is a hint for them ... They cannot exploit it.
Their side has been long obstructing and criticizing the president on his wartime efforts. They have tried to force the president to give up some of his power as commander-in-chief by attempting to "micro-manage" the war in Congress. Congress has a couple of jobs when it comes to wartime, under the Constitution.
They fund it, via defense and extra appropriations for the war.
Congress has oversight of various aspects of the executive branch during the war.
From the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the House Armed Services Committee. The Judiciary Committee is as into the mix as any other as they still wrestle with the question of the NSA surveillance program. (Again, they do not have a leg to stand on.) And there are more than a couple willing Republicans involved in this mess.
But they cannot exploit the death of al-Zarqawi in any way. John Murtha has been crowing to the press for the better part of this year, and briefly late last year, that we need to get out of Iraq. Pack up the troops and bring them home. The mission is a failure. All that will be accomplished will be more uncessary troop deaths. When I listen to John Murtha, I feel like he is a public spokesman for all the nutty antiwar groups out there.
And the savior from 2004 (whose resurrection is due soon, if he has the guts) John Kerry has jumped on that bandwagon, too. The Boston Globe covered this open shift from Kerry's original politics of promoting himself as a solid leader because of his war experiences. But now, it seems, he has reverted back to his old protest days. No surprise there, is it now; can anyone say flip-flop?
The Senate Democrats tried to hold up the Defense Appropriations bill at the beginning of this year all over an amendment added that would have opened up ANWaR. What I find appalling is that the other side is 100% opposed to any such move. It would make us less dependent on foreign sources of oil--especially those hostile to us like Saudi Arabia and Venenzuela--and that is as much a "civilian" matter as it is a military one. They dragged out the debate of the renewal of the Patriot Act, letting it lapse at the end of 2005.
And it was all over issues that had no merit to their arguments. To date, no complaint lodged by anyone in regard to "civil liberty" violations have proven fruitful. At best, these are people who have been inconvenienced in the most minor terms. At worst these people are opposed to any extra measures taken to better secure our nation, and keep an eye on the enemy we know is here. And we have seen that our allies suffer from similar fates. Canada just nailed a possible terrorist ring. (I say "possible" because despite what we do know, they have not been found guilty of any crime yet. In my personal opinion, they were planning something big with three tons of amonium nitrate; they were not making the largest Victory Garden int he world.)
London had its 7/7 attacks. 3/11 marked the day that Spain was hit. Our enemies strike fromt he shadows ensuing as much chaos, fear, and confusion as possible. But, as in each of those cases, and even our own Bloody Tuesday, we have caught those who helped those animals. Moussaoui, despite what al-Qaeda has stated through their means of propaganda, was involved with the 9/11 hijackers. Not in the direct way it was originally hyped, but he was connected to them. He would not be serving a life sentence otherwise.
But none of us want to see attacks like this way again. We know that al-Zarqawi's death--while a solid victory in the war--does not end the war. We still have a long way to go. The benefit we may yet reap from his death is some of the insurgency having the wind taken out of it's sails. It is not probable that too many will give up after his death, but a few may. And we also will be dealing with a newbie on the Iraqi block; that being whomever is chosen to succeed al-Zarqawi. (It should be noted that his deputies do not have a long life expectency; a few have been killed over the course of the last three years.)
We know that the war is not over, and we do not need those on the Left reminding us of this. We celebrated the moment. The moment is over, ans just as quickly as Saddam's capture moment was. While they are positive steps, it is not the end. The endgame has yet to be fully played out, and with Iran looming on the horizon, we now have a new player in that final duel. Rumors have circulated throughout the Middle Eastern news services that bin Laden has been spotted in Iran. Mossad agents have stated that they have seen him there. It is a possibility that he is working on an alliance of sorts, and that should give our intelligence guys something to chew on.
Their worst fear may be yet in coming, but the pieces are aligning fro that sort of a scenario. President Ahmadinejad did not say how he would wipe out Israel. He simply promised that it would occur. But what if al-Qaeda was actually given a nuclear warhead to detonate on US soil? How about British soil? Yes, we know the game is still afoot. We are working on it.
Next time, just let us celebrate the moment instead of injecting your somber tones. It was a day to be happy for this nation and our troops. The Left simply wanted to turn it into a funeral.
Marcie
This week we had a victory in the GWOT (Global War On Terror, for the less blog-nuanced) when two f-16 successfully dispatched Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to meet Allah firsthand. And there was much in terms of celebrating, and patting of each other's backs on the "starboard" side of the aisle (if I may use "starboard," to quote my better half). And rightly so as we have been the strongest on the prosecution of this war.
So is it any wonder that those who are reminding everyone that the war is far from over, and not to get too cocky is the side that has been weakest on the war?
Yes I am making a funny here, but I am also trying to make a point. We have stood firmly in our mission to A) Deal decisively with al-Qaeda, and B) Disrupt or help eradicate terror groups elsewhere. And we have done that quite well. In Afghanistan approximately 25 million people no longer live under the rule of the Taliban, or fear its iron-fisted enforcers in al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden, if still alive, is on the run; he may be in another country like Pakistan, or Iran, or possibly even Sudan again, but I can assure our readers that he does not hang his turban long in any of those nations.
And this goes to the heart of al-Zarqawi's death. For the better part of a year, al-Zarqawi has been the virtual face of al-Qaeda. He is who the Iraqis feared most because of how he announced his presence when he arrived in town. He was brutal, to say the least, and seemed to relish the opportunity to take heads of those who opposed him. Typical thuggery. His loss was seen as a good victory in the war, but one could not tell that from the Democrats who paraded out and announced this was a good thing to have occurred.
But each and everyone of them had either a plastered smile on their faces, or a dour expression. You could assume by how they sounded and looked that they were not happy about the death of al-Zarqawi. They look at this sort of an accomplishment as a political opportunity, but they have yet to figure out how to "exploit" it. Here is a hint for them ... They cannot exploit it.
Their side has been long obstructing and criticizing the president on his wartime efforts. They have tried to force the president to give up some of his power as commander-in-chief by attempting to "micro-manage" the war in Congress. Congress has a couple of jobs when it comes to wartime, under the Constitution.
They fund it, via defense and extra appropriations for the war.
Congress has oversight of various aspects of the executive branch during the war.
From the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to the House Armed Services Committee. The Judiciary Committee is as into the mix as any other as they still wrestle with the question of the NSA surveillance program. (Again, they do not have a leg to stand on.) And there are more than a couple willing Republicans involved in this mess.
But they cannot exploit the death of al-Zarqawi in any way. John Murtha has been crowing to the press for the better part of this year, and briefly late last year, that we need to get out of Iraq. Pack up the troops and bring them home. The mission is a failure. All that will be accomplished will be more uncessary troop deaths. When I listen to John Murtha, I feel like he is a public spokesman for all the nutty antiwar groups out there.
And the savior from 2004 (whose resurrection is due soon, if he has the guts) John Kerry has jumped on that bandwagon, too. The Boston Globe covered this open shift from Kerry's original politics of promoting himself as a solid leader because of his war experiences. But now, it seems, he has reverted back to his old protest days. No surprise there, is it now; can anyone say flip-flop?
The Senate Democrats tried to hold up the Defense Appropriations bill at the beginning of this year all over an amendment added that would have opened up ANWaR. What I find appalling is that the other side is 100% opposed to any such move. It would make us less dependent on foreign sources of oil--especially those hostile to us like Saudi Arabia and Venenzuela--and that is as much a "civilian" matter as it is a military one. They dragged out the debate of the renewal of the Patriot Act, letting it lapse at the end of 2005.
And it was all over issues that had no merit to their arguments. To date, no complaint lodged by anyone in regard to "civil liberty" violations have proven fruitful. At best, these are people who have been inconvenienced in the most minor terms. At worst these people are opposed to any extra measures taken to better secure our nation, and keep an eye on the enemy we know is here. And we have seen that our allies suffer from similar fates. Canada just nailed a possible terrorist ring. (I say "possible" because despite what we do know, they have not been found guilty of any crime yet. In my personal opinion, they were planning something big with three tons of amonium nitrate; they were not making the largest Victory Garden int he world.)
London had its 7/7 attacks. 3/11 marked the day that Spain was hit. Our enemies strike fromt he shadows ensuing as much chaos, fear, and confusion as possible. But, as in each of those cases, and even our own Bloody Tuesday, we have caught those who helped those animals. Moussaoui, despite what al-Qaeda has stated through their means of propaganda, was involved with the 9/11 hijackers. Not in the direct way it was originally hyped, but he was connected to them. He would not be serving a life sentence otherwise.
But none of us want to see attacks like this way again. We know that al-Zarqawi's death--while a solid victory in the war--does not end the war. We still have a long way to go. The benefit we may yet reap from his death is some of the insurgency having the wind taken out of it's sails. It is not probable that too many will give up after his death, but a few may. And we also will be dealing with a newbie on the Iraqi block; that being whomever is chosen to succeed al-Zarqawi. (It should be noted that his deputies do not have a long life expectency; a few have been killed over the course of the last three years.)
We know that the war is not over, and we do not need those on the Left reminding us of this. We celebrated the moment. The moment is over, ans just as quickly as Saddam's capture moment was. While they are positive steps, it is not the end. The endgame has yet to be fully played out, and with Iran looming on the horizon, we now have a new player in that final duel. Rumors have circulated throughout the Middle Eastern news services that bin Laden has been spotted in Iran. Mossad agents have stated that they have seen him there. It is a possibility that he is working on an alliance of sorts, and that should give our intelligence guys something to chew on.
Their worst fear may be yet in coming, but the pieces are aligning fro that sort of a scenario. President Ahmadinejad did not say how he would wipe out Israel. He simply promised that it would occur. But what if al-Qaeda was actually given a nuclear warhead to detonate on US soil? How about British soil? Yes, we know the game is still afoot. We are working on it.
Next time, just let us celebrate the moment instead of injecting your somber tones. It was a day to be happy for this nation and our troops. The Left simply wanted to turn it into a funeral.
Marcie
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 2:05 PM
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