Iraq, part 2

I finished my exercise regiment earlier Friday evening than normal.  I typically don’t watch the national evening news.  However, I turned it on.  I think it was NBC which was doing a story on what the Democrats would do if they won a majority of the House and Senate.  (When I turned on the TV it was on CBS.  I turned it to NBC but I don’t remember for sure if the story was on CBS and then I turned it or if I turned it and then watched the story.  Until I heard the story line I wasn’t paying attention.  I do think it was NBC though.)  One of the goals given was “redeploy the troops in Iraq.”  (Of course, this goal was not questioned by the reporter.)    

I don’t exactly understand what the Democrats mean by redeploy and the reporter didn’t define it.  Do they mean just change the locations of the troops in Iraq, increase or decrease the number of troops in Iraq, or remove the troops from Iraq?  However, this I do know.  Unless someone has rewritten the Constitution of the United States, Congress does not possess the power to redeploy anything!!!  The last time I checked, the President of the United States was the Commander in Chief of the armed forces.  Is Congress going to amend the Constitution or do they just expect the Supreme Court to do that for them?

Congress does have control of the budget theoretically even though, in fact, the President normally gets what he desires.  Can you envision this?  Congress cuts off the funds necessary to fight in Iraq.  (You think the President reacted to John Kerry’s ridiculous comment about education and ending up in Iraq.)  Imagine the furor that would occur if that actually happened.  The President would immediately claim that the Democrats were endangering the lives of our troops for political reasons.  Do you really believe the Democrats would risk such an accusation?

No.  The truth is that, regardless of who controls Congress, as long as the President wants troops to be in Iraq, troops are probably going to be in Iraq.  Congress might complain.  Congress might win some small concessions.  However, Congress is not going to do anything that will give the President the excuse to claim that they are endangering the lives of our troops.  It just will not happen.  

If it does, it will no doubt be political suicide for the Democrats and they know it.  Compare calling the members of the armed forces illiterate and doing something that will lead to the accusation that the troop’s lives are endangered because of the political games of Congress.  It would be political suicide!!!  Even libertine Democrats aren’t going to risk that type of accusation.        

With all the complaining of libertine Democrats, I think it’s important to ask the following question.  What, if anything, has the fighting in Iraq accomplished?  Let’s see if any accomplishments can be identified.

• A brutal, dictatorial regime has been overthrown.


• Saddam Hussein, the leader of that regime, has been captured and placed on trial for crimes against the people of the nation.    


• A new, democratically elected government has been placed in power in Iraq.


• Major leaders of Al-Qaida have been killed or captured.


• United States territory has not been attacked since 9/11.


• We are battling the enemy on their territory rather than within the United States.


• We have lost fewer men in the years of fighting than we lost in less than one month of fighting in the Battle of Iwo Jima.


• We are slowly but surely rebuilding the nation of Iraq.


• We are winning the military fight.

The war has not gone perfectly.  No war that lasts more than a few days goes perfectly.  We are also fighting a different war than normal.  The enemy uses terror.  The enemy deliberately murders civilians.  The enemy doe not wear uniforms.  The enemy does not carry around signs declaring we are terrorists.  However, by any reasonable, logical standard, the enemy is losing.  

In fact, the enemy is relying upon our losing our patience.  The enemy is relying on help, intended or not, from our own mass media and President Bush’s political opposition.  Spain was attacked immediately before an election and the nation voted into power the opposition party.  The opposition party withdrew from the coalition.  The enemy would like nothing better than that to happen in the United States as well.  The question is: are we so gullible as to fall into the same trap as the people of Spain.  The stated goal of the enemy is to DESTROY US!!!  

Sometimes, when I’m feeling mean, I think that the Democrats should win control of the government.  Let’s see how they would save the nation.  They had done so well in the last fifteen years before the change in power in Congress in 1994.  But then, I quickly change back to rational thought.  If you want a party that murders unborn babies in control, you will get what you deserve.

A political cartoon was printed in the Peoria Journal Star on October 1, 2006, page A4.  A man was in a living room reading a book to a little child seated next to him.  The title of the book was “Dems Fairy Tales.”  He read the following: “So we immediately withdrew from Iraq and all the terrorists quit and we all lived happily ever after.”  THAT IS A FAIRY TALE!!!  IT WILL NOT HAPPEN.  NOT NOW; NOT EVER.  THIS ONE IS PREDICTABLE.

“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.  The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Galatians 6: 7-8 (NIV)