USA Today founder Al Neuharth really opened his mouth and placed his foot inside it. His Thursday, December, 23, 2004 article was gregarious in its call for troops to return home from Iraq. In his article Neuharth sited that with the holiday season upon us, the mounting casualties, and the ill-equipped soldiers, that all the United States should high tail it our of Iraq. He based his statements on the fact that he served during World War II.
First of all, I would like to thank Mr. Neuharth for his service to our countries all so many years ago. However, his service should not be confused with expert analysis of how this war should be handled. At the same time, I do not offer expert analysis either. I only offer hope and encouragement to men and women, most of whom are younger than my 26 years, growing up all to fast in the face of such adversity.
Mr. Neuharth, do not confuse Iraq and Vietnam, I am tired of the comparison. Maybe Iraq did not directly send terrorists to attack America, but can anyone honestly admit that he did not seek ways to repeat the process or gather nuclear weapons to enact even more damage? The fact that we are fighting in Iraq, has directly attributed to the fight against the terrorists there, and not on US soil. Keeping those that would seek to harm our nation isolated and away from our soil is what a president should do. And he has done. The ones fighting in Iraq for America are those men and women who have been trained to fight, I have not, as well as nearly all those living in our pampered little world.
The War in Iraq has been tough, we have lost more lives than we should have, but by pulling out now, and showing the world what cowards we could be, we do nothing but insure that those deaths meant nothing. Iraq will be democratic one day, just as Afghanistan before them, and all the way to Germany before them. We are still in Germany, we are still in Korea, we are still in Kosovo, we are still in Afghanistan, and we will continue to be in Iraq. Freedom from tyranny does not happen over night. Nor do we want it to. We want thoughtful leaders, and problem solving skills developed by tough decisions. Only then will Iraq truly be free.
So Mr. Neuharth, I must admit I agree with Michael Bustamente, of Sterling Height, MI in a response to your article: “Tell you what. We leave and the sanctimonious jerks like you and your Free Press, you go there and stay after we leave.” Bush has been to Iraq, Rumsfeld has been to Iraq, but how many times have you been Mr. Neuharth?
January 03, 2005
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Perhaps you meant egregious rather than gregarious?
ReplyDeleteYou know, I think I originally meant eregious, but after reading gregarious, and the way that he simply cannot think for his own, but follow all the other left wing "chicken littles", I beleive either word may fit approprietly.
ReplyDeleteGood point!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and would like to add two more points as to why the Vietnam/Iraq comparison does not work. They are obvious points to consider but I guess given what Mr. Neuharth has said they need repeating.
ReplyDelete1. Al Quaida is is an international terrorist organization with its tentacles all around the globe. The terrorists that staff it, the financiers that fund it, and the audience that listens to it may be found on every continent. It promotes a universal value structure that all must abide by or perish from should you reject it.
The Vietnamese communists certainly bought into a universal world view but their primary concern was limited to its birth and implementation within Vietnam. The communists' fought for and won their more limited goal - communism in the Southeast.
2. Al Quaida attacked us. Our misguided invasion in Iraq was designed to thwart them or any of their sympathizers, from acquiring the weapons of mass destruction they crave for and to do that we had to eliminate those who could and may sell those weaons to them.
The North Vietnamese did not attack the United States mainland. They had no designs for the United States itself. They wanted South Vietnam, Cambodia, and possibly Laos but that's it.
I know this is obvious to you and to those who visit your site. I wonder why I'm mentioning it since it doesn't seem worhtwhile to state the obvious but then again, the Vietnam comparison is made way too often.
I usually don't like to chime in on my colleagues posts, but this comment is more towards Heretic's comment.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct that Al Qaeda attacked America and you are also correct to call the invasion of Iraq misguided. But, as you must know, Iraq did not have WMD. I'm sure Saddam was craving weapons just as bad as Bin Laden, but the facts are that Iraq did not have the weapons that we said he had. We were wrong in demonstrating to the world that Iraq was an immediate threat that possessed WMD and at any second could supply those weapons to Bin Laden and his organization. We were wrong.
Iran and North Korea crave those same weapons. Heck militia's in Montana crave them. The precedent that we have set now calls for the invasion of all that. Iran and North Korea probably already have the weapons. And we have no doubt that Pakistan does.
I'm more worried about fundamentalists in Pakistan supplying Al Quaeda.
My point is, if we invaded Iraq to thwart terrorists from recieving weapons that they so crave, then we failed.
Just one more thing, and I'll leave the post alone.
ReplyDeleteJust as it's not fair to compare Iraq to Vietnam it's also not fair or accurate to compare establishing democracy in Iraq to that of Germany, Japan or Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is not a democracy. But that's another post. And even after the Jan. elections in Iraq, it too will not be a democracy. I have to repeat this one more time. ELECTIONS DO NOT CREATE DEMOCRACY! The Soviet Union held elections all the time. I don't see anyone arguing that the USSR was democratic.
Building a democracy in Iraq has nothing to do with 1945 Germany or 2004 Afghanistan. We broke Iraq, now it's up to us to fix it.
Thank you raven for the post. I agree that leaving would greatly undermine an already deep hatred the world has for the U.S. If the War in Iraq has done anything, it has focused the terrorists in one area, an area that trained combatants can now have the ability to search out, and eliminate.
ReplyDelete