May 30 2008
Success Continues In The War On Terror – Too Large To Ignore Or Deny Any Longer
The perpetrators of the 9-11 atrocities, and many other atrocities on the West since then, are heading for defeat. They are being brought to justice for their heinous crimes. America is on the verge of making good on all those promises we made to the 3,000 who died that fateful day in 2001. Along the way many more have died, but the enemy has died in multiples of 10, 20, 50 as well. The war that begun 7 years ago, not against a nation but against a cancerous religious ideology based on fascist oppression, seems to be heading into its last phase. And this effort has required a new kind of war, a war that is not against states with borders but against states of mind filled with murderous hate against America and the West. A war for the hearts and minds of Islam.
Today, thanks to the sacrifices of our best and finest over the many years, al-Qaeda faces defeat across the globe – according to the head of the CIA:
Less than a year after his agency warned of new threats from a resurgent al-Qaeda, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden now portrays the terrorist movement as essentially defeated in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and on the defensive throughout much of the rest of the world, including in its presumed haven along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
In a strikingly upbeat assessment, the CIA chief cited major gains against al-Qaeda’s allies in the Middle East and an increasingly successful campaign to destabilize the group’s core leadership.
While cautioning that al-Qaeda remains a serious threat, Hayden said Osama bin Laden is losing the battle for hearts and minds in the Islamic world and has largely forfeited his ability to exploit the Iraq war to recruit adherents. Two years ago, a CIA study concluded that the U.S.-led war had become a propaganda and marketing bonanza for al-Qaeda, generating cash donations and legions of volunteers.
All that has changed, Hayden said in an interview with The Washington Post this week that coincided with the start of his third year at the helm of the CIA.
“On balance, we are doing pretty well,” he said, ticking down a list of accomplishments: “Near strategic defeat of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al-Qaeda globally — and here I’m going to use the word ‘ideologically’ — as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam,” he said.
The defeatists who inhabit the fevered leftward swamps of politics, those aging protesters from an era more than 3 decades ago, are not going to get the defeat they so desperately want for America. There will not be another Vietnam, which allowed many to tear down American and romanticize the communist fascists who have oppressed and killed millions over the decades – all in the name of equality. Thankfully America is done trying to determine which fascism is preferable, that based on equality meted out by government or that of religious purity meted out by an Islamic government. Thanks to George Bush we have returned to good ‘ole American democracy and freedom.
Let’s have a vote here on which image better represents America? Does America Prefer this image of America (a)?
Or does America prefer (b) (Obama’s friend the radical 60’s terrorist Bill Ayers dancing on the US Flag in 2001)?
How about a second round to illustrate the difference between the liberal, anti-war left that controls the Democrat party and the rest of America. If we had left Iraq last year, when the Democrat Congress was trying to cut off funds for our brave (and now successful) troops, we would not see the decimation of al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army we see today.
So again, would America prefer this image of Iraq (Mahdi Army thugs marching through Basra, which they brutalized in the name of Islamo Fascism)?
Or are they now proud to see a new democratic Iraq, allied against Islamo Fascism, as shown in this image of Iraqi elections we helped establish?
The Democrats predicted Iraq could never be turned around, that we were doomed to see al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army thugs control Iraq. They claimed we could never win the hearts and minds of the Muslim Street. They predicted the Muslim Street would rise up and take up arms against us. They predicted Iraq would be another Vietnam so they could dance, once again, on the flag that so many hold dear.
Democrats predicted we would be defeated, worked hard to make sure we were defeated, and appeared to pray each day that they would finally find evidence of us being defeated in the events transpiring in Iraq. They even went so far as to claim the acts of the Iraqis to stand up and take on their own security, by purging the Mahdi Army from Basra, was a failure instead of the success it has been. This final act of desperation moved the defeatists from praying for evidence of our defeat to making it up out of whole cloth. Just as the Democrats lied about ending the war in Iraq if elected, they lied about the defeat of America in Iraq.
I doubt many Americans are willing to join the ranks of lying quitters, who lie to rationalize why they quit and to gain power. Get ready for another political shock to start echoing through this country. The Awakening that started in Anbar Province in Iraq, swept across that country, and then across the Muslim Street in the Middle East, is about to hit the shores of America.
Update: It seems the tide is already rising, as one Manhattan Democrat openly recognizes how President George Bush has kept this country safe (H/T RCP):
With President Bush-bashing still a national pastime, it’s notable how much international terrorism has been forgotten, and how little credit the president has received for keeping Americans safe.
This is a difficult issue for me. I didn’t vote for President Bush – twice. And as a human-rights law professor, the events at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, along with various elements of the Patriot Act and the National Security Agency’s wiretapping of Americans, are all greatly troubling to me.
Yet I live in Manhattan and I was present on Sept. 11, 2001 – admittedly 100 blocks from the murder scene, but I was here, trembling along with the rest of America. Remember those days?
It is a heart warming recognition of what the man has done. Too many get lost on what he was not able to get done, while dealing with war and security and economic issues from 9-11. To be fair and open minded one has to see the complete picture, and realize few people would have the drive and sincerity to pull off what he did with a sea of ankle-biting second guessers hanging around.
And as a reminder of what we are fighting, and why we are winning the hearts and minds of Islam because we are a symbol and example of hope for the Middle East, one must read the horror stories, learn about the atrocities our common enemies inflict on their fellow Muslims, face why we are fighting on the side of good in this war:
On March 19, her husband, car mechanic Naman Jabar, was chatting with his neighbors in the street when a car pulled up. Men in black masks grabbed Mr. Jabar, and forced him into the car. Then, they went to Shamkhi’s house and knocked on the front door.
Shamkhi answered, and, by her account, the men pulled her out of the house, handcuffed her, gagged her with tape, put another strip of tape across her eyes, stuffed her in the trunk, and drove off.
They held her for three days, she says. They told her that her husband worked for the Americans. They slapped her face. They stripped off her clothes.
“I cannot repeat what they did to me,” says Shamkhi, blinking away tears and wrapping her black abaya tightly around her. “I am an old woman. It is shameful.”
Three days after the kidnapping, Shamkhi’s captors blindfolded her, gagged her, tied her hands, put her in a car, and then dumped her on the side of a highway in southern Baghdad. Two days after that, she says, she received a call from the morgue of Al-Yarmouk hospital, asking her to identify Jabar’s body.
…
When the American soldiers are about to leave, Shamkhi pulls out a cellphone from the folds of her abaya. On the screen is a picture of her murdered husband. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He was not rich, but he made me happy. We were in love,” she says. Tears well up in her eyes. “Iraqis are acting like criminals.”
These are the horror stories that coming rolling out of areas that were under the jackboot of the Islamo Fascists. This is the face of al-Qaeda, the Mahdi Army, all the Islamic extremists now exposed to the Muslim Street. These are the stories of Islamo Fascist atrocities on Muslims, which is why the support of these animals is falling. We exposed them for what they were. When we were hit on 9-11 we had the means to wipe whole countries off the map in response. We had the means to wipe out whole cities. Instead, we took the arduous and more costly path of precision attacks with boots on the ground to change the future of Islam from the path of extremism. We gave our lives to protect as many Muslims as possible from the horrors of Islamo Fascism.
This is well known in Iraq. The Iraqis know who is their enemy and who is their ally. It is not perfect, it is not without challenges and problems. It is just light years beyond where we stood on 9/12/01, when George Bush made his commitment to America and we made ours to him. Too many have become distracted on side issues and angry their pet peeves had to taken a back seat to the War on Terror. But I think most will recognize that the Bush years were pretty damn good, all things considered. Especially if they end with victory against al-Qaeda.
I hope you are right, AJ, because America trully does need its own awakening.
If McCain were smart….
he would use this election to educate Americans on what is really going on in this war. I’m not just talking about Iraq, either.
Great post AJ! And right on, Frogg, Iraq being just one theater in the wot.
And, off subject a bit… the thing I find amusing regarding Scott McClellan, is that he has given Karl Rove the opportunity to have his voice heard and that of the administration. Under normal circumstances, the White House would have gotten very little, if any coverage! heheheh.
Unintended consequences, hey peter/soros? Hah!
These people must never be allowed into OUR House. Ever.
Sorry AJ, all BULLSHIT; we’re losing, and we MUST surrender, at any cost, to anyone, doesn’t matter who, we must HAVE to surrender…
Oh, sorry, I slipped, hit my head on the corner of the coffee table and when I came to, I was temporarily thinking like an Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Lefist Democratic Traitor Nutbag…
“Worm” and “Gorgonzola” must be crying in their glasses of warm milk right now…
6-1/2 years after 9.11 al queda “…remains a serious threat…” and you call that success?
[…] to ‘talk’ to terrorists, work out some deal, end the war before we seal our victory. As I noted in the post below the Bush plan, to defeat the terrorists, is actually working and picking up momentum. Today […]
Yes Norm, All your cherry-picking and blinders to the rest of the picture only proves your afraid to deal with all the facts.
Not that the facts don’t exist, don’t matter, don’t overshadow the fact even greatly diminished AQ is a threat.
All it means Norm is now is not the time to give up – we need to finish the job you had no idea how to do and did not have the backbone or courage to take on.
You’re a quitter Norm. Any moron can find an excuse not to act. It takes talent and courage to find a way through all the land mines life puts in your path and succeed against the odds.
Quitter vs success. You come here every day and emphasize the difference. Which is why I don’t mind you coming here, you are the best example of how not to live a life.
Well said, AJ. I was thinking how quickly Norm jumped on the ultimate Liberal fallback position – “if it can’t be done instantly and easily, then it shouldn’t even be tried.”
Evil has always thrived with the complicity of the Norm’s of this world.
here’s a better one – Nothing worth doing (in the large sense) will be easy.
norm wrote “6-1/2 years after 9.11 al queda “…remains a serious threat…†and you call that success?”
Considering (1) that we have chosen to fight a civilized war against uncivilized opponents, instead of the “Vernichtungskrieg” that would assure quick success, though at the cost of several hundred million lives, and (2) the US has not been successfully attacked since 9.11, yes, I call it success. Perfect success no, but good success. The perfect is the enemy of the good.
It takes time to fight and win wars, and time to build workable governments – even after defeating the British and establishing independence, it took, the American states almost a decade to work out and agree upon the form of the national government.
AJ,
How do you see the effect the Soros-McClellan book will have?
Seems to me it is an attempt to change the narrative.
The dems realize that the war has been won but now they’re saying
so what? It was a crappy war anyways. Shouldn’t have been started.
You won a crappy war. Who cares? You’re all crud.
I don’t think liberals have the ability to say they were wrong.
One learns not to bother debating in places like RCJ or infoshop.
It’s useless.
Does McClellan have longer than fifteen minutes?
McClellan’s book is a none issue. Won’t change minds, won’t stop Iraq from victory, won’t save the dems.
As Powerline noted, seems Scott has no mind whatsoever, just does what he is told to make a buck.
this is from:Lorie Byrd
FTA:”When those on the left continue to claim there was no reason to go into Iraq and that the entire war was based on “Bush’s lies†they are lying to the American public.
In just one recent example, Mark Eichenlaub (writing at National Review in March) noted newly released information from the Iraqi Perspectives Project (including 600,000 Iraqi documents) showing “that Saddam Hussein’s regime funded, trained, and assisted terrorist groups (including al-Qaeda proxies), and sometimes actually ordered them to attack American citizens, American interests, and American allies†and “was simultaneously using its intelligence and security apparatus to plot and conduct terror attacks of its own.â€
Steve Schippert described the cherry-picking done by those in the American media who, instead of reporting the extent to which Saddam was involved in terrorist activity, chose to dismiss the relevance of the project’s findings by summarizing “a 94 page report down to a single, unrepresentative phrase.â€
Eichenlaub wrote, “Because of Saddam’s removal, which came at considerable cost in American blood and gold, a ‘formal instrument’ of state terrorism is no longer secretly plotting to kill Americans. The American public deserves to know what a threat was removed for that price.â€
Most have probably never seen or heard the actual content of the Iraqi Perspective Project report and this is only one example of information discovered since the invasion of Iraq that reinforces the belief by so many at the time that Saddam’s Iraq posed a real threat to American citizens.
It is important, especially this year when Americans are electing a new President, to look at all the information available in the months prior to the Iraq invasion, rather than looking only to the media’s often inaccurate Cliff’s Notes version.”
And regarding McClellan, the dem/soros are, as we have said and Dick Morris said last night, MANUFACTURING media information for this election. They are desperate.
Stand firm. Stand tall. We will NOT let the global socialists into OUR House. Ever.
aj…no one…not one person anywhere…is saying not to act. that is just another of your lies and mis-representations intended to agrandize yourself. what people want is a plan that actually succeeds, not one that must be spun to show success. i wish there was some way to hear what you and your little cult would say if a democrat sent over 4000 troops to die, borrowed over three trillion dollars, and yet 6-1/2 years later al queda was still a serious threat. iran is a bigger threat. hamas and hezzbollah are both stronger. israel is less safe. i do not think success means what you think it means.
What’s funny about assholes like norm is that they’re doing NOTHING to protect this country (this isn’t a chickenhawk complaint… when I say NOTHING i mean nothing. He obviously doesn’t understand the threat of islam.. he is not helping our soldiers by increasing morale at home, things like that)… in fact he helps our enemies by being a pawn in their propaganda of death that he reacts to so faithfully.
The Democrats have done shit to contribute to the security of this country. They are defeatists and obstructionist at every turn.
They are preventing our borders from being protected, they are signalling to our enemies that they only need to wait us out, they are chocking America’s economy and energy supply (on purpose), and traitors like Pelosi are definately interfereing with our Foreign Policy by alienating our allies and encouraging our enemies.
This timeline highlights the contribution of the Left to our war effort in Afghanistan directly after 9/11.. Who can spot it?
http://www.waranddecision.com/docLib/20080414_Timeline1Afghanistan.pdf
Timeline 1. Afghanistan and the War on Terror,
September 2001–December 2002
Sept. 9 Assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud
Sept. 11 Terrorists strike the United States
Sept. 12 President meets with Joint Chiefs at Pentagon
Sept. 15–16 Camp David meeting of National Security Council
Sept. 20 President addresses Congress
Oct. 7 Beginning of war in Afghanistan
Oct. 19 First entry into Afghanistan of U.S. Special Ops Forces
Oct.–Nov. American press reports: “quagmireâ€
Nov. 9 Fall of Mazar-e-Sharif
Nov. 11 Fall of Herat
Nov. 13 Fall of Kabul
Nov. 14 Fall of Jalalabad
Dec. 5 Bonn Process agreement on Afghan interim
administration
Dec. 6 UN resolution calls for new government
Dec. 7 Fall of Kandahar
Dec. 22 Karzai government installed
Throughout Dec. Tora Bora
Dec. 20. Creation of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
Norm,
What is your plan? How do you measure your assertions that Hamas, Hiz’b Allah are stronger? What leadership from your side of the aisle would have made Al Quaeda a lesser threat? I have been reading here for 2 years and see you sniping at AJ and others but don’t recall you offering any alternatives for critique.
norm:
Guys like you always do that, wait until someone does something and then crawl out from under a rock and tell them what they should have done. When it mattered, where were you people? Burning flags?
I could not believe what Pelosi said about Iran’s goodwill. The woman is crazy. McClellan might have been a sucky at his job, but his job was a lot less important.
[…] More people are quietly celebrating the defeat of the Mahdi Army than worrying about any long term agreements between Iraq and America. While this was another missed opportunity for the SurrenderMedia to find evidence of our mythical defeat in Iraq, it is not a driving issue for war weary Iraqis who are not swarming to support Sadr and his Sadrists any more. Politically the Sadrist movement has been severely damaged because they gave cover to cruel and violent animals. […]
Cepic,
You asked how do you measure Norm’s assertion that Iran, Hamas and Hezzbollah are stronger since Bush’s Iraq war and GWOT. Simple answer – common sense.
Iran – We removed Iran’s most significant threat and counter-balance in the region and replaced it with a government of Shites with close ties to Iran. Al Maliki lived in Iran and Syria from 1980 to 2003. The most powerful Shite party, the SIIC, was founded in Iran, and is headed by Al Hakim whom lived in Iran from 1980 to 2003 and is the head of the Badr Brigade militia. Al Hakim is the son of a Grand Ayatolla and is an Shite Islamic theologian himself. The Badr Brigade militia was formed and trained by the Iranian government and actually fought with the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war. The Iranian president visits Iraq with parades through the open street, while our president visits by flying under cover of darkness and staying within the US military bases. Virtually all of our Arab allies in the region have publically complained to the US about the rise in Iranian power.
Hamas – Hamas won the last Palistian election and is now the governing body of Gaza. Hamas has hijacked the Israeli-Palistian peace negotiations by lobing missles into Israel and killing any chance of successful negotiations.
Hezbollah – Hezzbollah fought Israel to a standstill in Lebanon in 2006 Lebanon, which is widely viewed as a major stategic loss for the Israelis. Last week the Lebanon government granted Hezzbollah veto power over key government decisions in an effort to stop a civil war from breaking out in Lebanon.
I don’t have time to provide all of the examples of how their power and influence has increased, but I think these few examples will make the point.