Thursday, July 12, 2007

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Michael Yon has posted another dispatch, this one further describing how the Sunnis have turned on Al Qaeda, how they're helping American forces, how large Al Qaeda was in Iraq and how they are now on the run.
The focus on al Qaeda makes sense here, where local officials have gone on record acknowledging that most of the perhaps one thousand al Qaeda fighters in Baqubah were young men and boys who called the city home. This may clash with the perception in US and other media that only a small percentage of the enemy in Iraq is al Qaeda, which in turn leads to false conclusions that the massive offensive campaign underway across Iraq is a lot of shock and awe aimed at a straw enemy. But as more Sunni tribal leaders renounce former ties with al Qaeda, it’s becoming clearer just how heavily AQ relied on local talent, and how disruptive they have been here in fomenting the civil war...

The same Zawahiri who issued al Qaeda’s latest call for recruits sent a letter to Zarqawi back in 2005, warning him to stop cutting off people’s heads and broadcasting it. Zawahiri’s version of a “Values Message” cautioned Zarqawi that these grostesqueries were losing al Qaeda the support of Muslims. He was right. Al Qaeda is no longer welcome in Baqubah.
We're winning.

Our Patriarch of the Airwaves, Hugh Hewitt has a post on senators calling for a general retreat from Iraq. I won't quote it here because it make me sick to my stomach.

Meanwhile, today's USA Today has an above-the-fold story on how some Iraqi police were conspiring with Al Qaeda. While true, this is an aberration and gives an entirely false sense of the situation in Iraq. There is no doubt at all that the Mainstream Media (MSM) is the enemy of truth and freedom. The information distribution revolution can't proceed fast enough for me.

Finally, at yesterday's MLB All Star game, the 7th inning stretch featured some woman singing "God Bless America." It was preceded by her stating her desire that the troops come home safe. What an utterly emasculated sentiment.

How about asking for victory, instead?

4 comments:

Michael said...

Ah yes divion on the homefront can lead to disasterous results.Yet a victory for US will be short lived when we leave because business as usaual through dictators express which surrounds the region will go back into play through assasination ( the middle east favorite).I do understand the desired effect of winning with goals completed but then again in the end the final results are not up to us really is it.

K T Cat said...

Success is never complete and victory never total. Your sentiment that "victory will be short-lived" is redundant.

Victory is always short-lived. That's true whether it's victory over cancer (you're going to die anyway) or military victory. You haven't given a reason why victory is unimportant, you've shown a motivating factor behind the squeamish wafflers.

"If we can't be completely successful, let's not try at all."

Michael said...

re·dun·dant /rɪˈdʌndənt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ri-duhn-duhnt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–adjective 1. characterized by verbosity or unnecessary repetition in expressing ideas; prolix: a redundant style.
2. being in excess; exceeding what is usual or natural: a redundant part.
3. having some unusual or extra part or feature.
4. characterized by superabundance or superfluity: lush, redundant vegetation.
5. Engineering. a. (of a structural member) not necessary for resisting statically determined stresses.
b. (of a structure) having members designed to resist other than statically determined stresses; hyperstatic.
c. noting a complete truss having additional members for resisting eccentric loads. Compare complete (def. 8), incomplete (def. 3).
d. (of a device, circuit, computer system, etc.) having excess or duplicate parts that can continue to perform in the event of malfunction of some of the parts.

6. Linguistics. characterized by redundancy; predictable.
7. Computers. containing more bits or characters than are required, as a parity bit inserted for checking purposes.
8. Chiefly British. removed or laid off from a job.


[Origin: 1595–1605; < L redundant- (s. of redundāns), I cannot see how thats possible also see dictionary under emasculation and I cannot see where saying troops come home safe even fits that definition.You hope they do not?Victory over being there for that job IS important yet all our efforts will be in vain as we think we can regime change but wait and see it will not and the rut in which they are accustomed to will return.See Histories of nations in that region.Im no waffler, but a realist and have foresight which many do not seem to have.You misread me.Im for the war in its ideals,for the soldiers coming home safe which many have not,victory in a war is important but its goals of long term effect will in fact not hold.Its so evident a blind person could see that.You miss the scope of that region and to how we are reviewed in that region by the religions at hand there.Ive shown neither unimportance nor waffling,only realities which again are missed by many.Youve shown a one way view of idealisms and words which have no connection to the statements you make.Sure all will die one way or another but it seems in vain as the true attempted accompishment of instilling democracy will not hold in a region so used to the most guns rule See Mid East histories.I can garauntee you if Al Queda was about to blow you up here.I would not waffle or be squeemish about pulling my triggers.See my rant o blog at http://quest-ion-able.blogspot.com and I have no waffles there either.I assume you never served ?

Anonymous said...

Michael. How fortunate that you weren't the leader in Britain in 1940.