“Your words are killing us”: note to Harry Reid
Here’s Naval officer Jason Nichols’s letter to Harry Reid on the subject of Reid’s recent declaration of defeat in Iraq. He makes the excellent point that statements such as Reid’s strike fear into the hearts of any Iraqis who might be thinking about cooperating with the US by reporting on terrorists and insurgents.
If Reid wants less violence rather than more, he should think more deeply before he speaks.
It’s too late. He’s redefined any future adversary’s victory as merely preventing the US from preventing the deaths of civilians. We can’t possibly succeed now. There is an endless supply of civilians, and an endless supply of people willing to kill them.
Reid is simply fighting a different war from the rest of us. Reids war is for power in washington. His adversary, the president is clearly losing that war. So when Harry Reid says ” the war is lost” hes not talking about the war on the battlefield, hes talking about the realignment of power in washington, andhes announcing to the world that the reagan/gingrich war is “lost”.
Reid beleives in is heart that what is best for him and his party should override any concern the rest of us might have for our petty property and our pitiful lives, that with the democrats rightfully in charge, that rich people everywhere will cower before them and justice will be at hand.
What Reid and the left wing peace-niks refuse to understand is that by their words and acts, whatever war is in place in the battlefield will go on longer, be bloodier and cost more than what it would have otherwise.
What they also refuse to understand is that the battlefield isnt just “over there” being fought by men in uniforms, but here at home. In this war, we, the soft civilians are the target of the enemy, and that by practicing the art of capitulation. Senator Reid and his party have assured that many more of us will be killed in the process.
What Seantor Reid says to the peaceniks is that he’s bringing the troops home, but what he has actually done is to bring the war home.
I am convinced that Harry Reid speaks for the bulk of the US Democratic Party elected officials. They have such a deep investment in defeat, that they do not hesitate to help defeat happen. Mr. Reid no doubt got a very good chuckle out of Lt. Nichols’ letter.
As a former supporter of Democratic Party candidates, I have never been so ashamed of a group of politicians.
What if he doesn’t want less violence, Neo? What then.
Reid and the Democrats want America beaten and humiliated. They hate us. They want millions of us to die. It’s not about partisan politics or ideology. It’s all about hate.
Reid and the Democrats want America beaten and humiliated. They hate us. They want millions of us to die. It’s not about partisan politics or ideology. It’s all about hate.
And your basis for this gem of an opinion is…. exactly what?
Reid and the Democrats want America beaten and humiliated. They hate us. They want millions of us to die. It’s not about partisan politics or ideology. It’s all about hate.
And your basis for this gem of an opinion is…. exactly what?
Reid is against fighting terrorists overseas. He’ll be against fighting them here too.
Reid and the other Copperhead Democrats have taught the Islamofascists a very important lesson – the way to victory is to slaughter more women, more children, more helpless victims! This is totally consistent with what the Islamofascist death cults of Palestine learned from the Eurabians. The higher the carnage, the more grotesque the crime, the greater the reward.
I agree with frank martin in that the Democrats sole purpose in abandoning Iraq is about defeating and humiliating Bush, the Republicans and neo conservatism in general, the cost be damned.
I dont think that it isnt that they truly believe that there isnt a war between the west and Islamofascism, they just dont see it as the main enemy because it doesnt threaten their power as much as neo conservatism does.
Im sure that if HRC is elected and the US is attacked again in a horrific manner and her poll numbers start to go south, you can probably look forward to the Democrats suddenly embracing electronic domestic surveillance, extraordinary rendition, military tribunals, every thing they criticized Bush for. Anything to bring the poll numbers back.
And the press will tell us how tough and smart she is.
I notice very few lefty flamers here. Perhaps the lefties read the letter, couldn’t think of a reply, and had to go to Democratic Underground real fast so they could forget they read it.
Bunnies, it’s simple. How are they supposed to tell someone who lives the experience every day that the MSM doesn’t agree with him, therefore he’s just deluding himself to the reality we’re losing. It’s like an armchair quarrterback telling Brett Favre he can’t win, when Brett, who’s playing, knows how many times his team has scored even without looking at the scoreboard. So, they have no choice but to ignore his letter. In two or three days, they’ll come crawling back out of their holes to tell us(not him) that we’ve already lost.
Oh, sure, Charl(and others) may come along to challenge one or two of OUR comments, but he can’t refute the letter itself.
Charlemagne , Wake up and smell the roses. Nothing but pure hate has came from the democrat party since 2000, and I was a democrat for many years prior to that. Dimmy started the slide to the republicans, Slick finished it off. They can’t accept they only lost an election and act like it killed they’re entire family.
3000 people died because Slick cut and ran and they followed us home. They lived among us throughout the 90’s planning the attack on 9-11 and no one even gave them a second thought.
Hate spreads like wildfire or cudzu, and the evidence of it was at VT last week. Didn’t anyone hear his democrat rants of hate for everyone and everything.
Unfortunetly it will happen to more people like you. Your will flake out and kill someone or end up in a mental facility for the criminally insane. That is your future, like it or not.
The way this country is going, he’ll probably wind up chief of staff in the Cindy Sheehan administration.
“I notice very few lefty flamers here.”
You notice very few posts period. The right has been abandoned.
Your whining about the “left” is falling on deaf ears.
The left doesn’t hate America. America hates the right!
It’s over for the right. The only question now is who goes down with the ship.
I think Cheney and Bush will off themselves rather than face the music.
So, tell me, Sam, what would you say to Lt. Nichols about his letter if you had the chance? Huh, Sam? HUH?
President Giuliani, anyone?
Yeah, that’s what I thought. You can’t say ANYTHING to him because he’s THERE with the truth every day, while you’re back HERE with your “hearsay”.
Sally wrote:
The idea that a statement referring to “the beginnings of capitalism” is refuted by a temporary fall in earnings in the wake of a recession is silly enough in itself. Combined with the fact that the report he’s referring to only goes up to 2005, not “the present”, and that it’s dealing with miniscule variations clouded by changing demographics, it becomes laughable.
From the article “Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?” by Ian Dew-Becker of the National Bureau of Economic Research:
“We show that over the entire period 1966-2001, as well as over 1997-2001, only the top 10 percent of the income distribution enjoyed a growth rate of real wage and salary income equal to or above the average rate of economy-wide productivity growth. Median real wage and salary income barely grew at all.”
The article is available online at:
http://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/11842.html
appealforredress.org.How are they supposed to tell someone who lives the experience every day that the MSM doesn’t agree with him, therefore he’s just deluding himself to the reality we’re losing. It’s like an armchair quarrterback telling Brett Favre he can’t win, when Brett, who’s playing, knows how many times his team has scored even without looking at the scoreboard.
Why is one individual soldier’s personal opinion supposed to be gospel truth?
“In October [2006], Jonathan Hutto, a Navy seaman based in Norfolk, Va., worked with other active-duty personnel to initiate “An Appeal for Redress,” which calls on “political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq.”
“Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price,” says the appeal, which military personnel can sign at:
http://www.appealforredress.org.
“It is time for U.S. troops to come home.” In the space of barely a week, almost 500 had signed on.
“According to organizers, the campaign takes advantage of the statutory right of active-duty troops to express their opinions to members of Congress without fear of retaliation. “I don’t think any more Iraqis or Americans should die because of the U.S. occupation,” said Liam Madden, a Marine sergeant and another organizer of the appeal campaign. “The occupation is perpetuating more violence.”
I don’t think any more Iraqis or Americans should die because of the U.S. occupation,” said Liam Madden, a Marine sergeant and another organizer of the appeal campaign. “The occupation is perpetuating more violence.
Well, this is a grossly ahistoric thing to say — yes people die in interventions of human liberation. So, our resistance to terrorism is the cause of terrorism is what the sergeant is saying. Why is he in the military?
If you think capitalism began in the late 1960’s, Charlie, you’re really going have to read a few more papers. Keep digging, though — eventually you should come across something called the Industrial Revolution, 20th century urbanization, and some spin-off effects like near universal literacy, the ending of slavery, extension of the human life-span, etc.
“From the article “Where Did the Productivity Growth Go?” by Ian Dew-Becker of the National Bureau of Economic Research:”
So, to refute the statement that one of your linked articles myopically focuses on selective economic trends up to 2005, you post a link to one that only deals with an even more limited selection of economic trends up to 2001.
How can anyone win an argument with such a cagey opponent, I wonder.
Not only that, Tatterdemalian, he uses an organization started by one disaffected “Navy man” (did anyone check to see if this guy is for real?) to refute the comments of one in-country soldier!
The refutation is staggering! I believe! I believe!
Sorry, one in-country sailor…PIMF.
ejectejecteject.comCharles obviously graduated from the Joe Conspiracy school of debate.
“Okay, you refuted that paper, but I have ANOTHER paper that says the exact same thing, and if you can’t refute it with a DIFFERENT argument, it means I’m right!”
How can anyone win an argument with such a cagey opponent, I wonder.
You’re not there to win, you’re there to exercise your muscles.
“In one week they got 500 signatures”
How many since then, Charl?
Let me answer that for you, Charl:
Since Oct, 2006, a total of 1875 active duty, reserve, and guard personnell have signed.
And how many of these have actually served in Iraq? Assuming every one of these has served, and our average in country troop levels at 140,000, and units rotated in and out making the total of troops serving or served in Iraq a higher figure, means less than 1%. This, of course, assumes all signatories actually served in country.
If you go to Acute Politics, Blackfive, or other milblogs, they tell you what happens there on a daily basis. They tell you details such as “went on patrol, cleared IUD’s, rooted out terrorists, found weapon caches,” etc.
The “anti-war” military personnell speak in generalities and platitudes, such as “we can’t win”, “we’re just creating more violence”, etc.
A preemptive war that preempted nothing.
Cost after 4 years +:
(1) 3,333 US troops lives (ten times that in serious injuries)
(2) 100s of thousnad of dead Iraqis (The rights idea of liberation)
(3) 3 million + Iraqis displaced from their homes (Iraq population: 25 million)
(4) 100s of billions of dollars.
(5) An Iraqi “government:” that couldn’t survive a day outside the Green Zone and has difficulty surviving inside.
The right’s plan: Wishful thinking.
It’s all over for the American Right.
I’m sorry, Sam, what do you have to say that disputes anything said in the man’s letter?
Once again, NOTHING! Huh, Sam?
And actually, Sam(just to be a stickler), the Iraqi government IS outside the Green Zone.
One of their first acts was to move the “protected diplomatic zone” or “Green Zone” to exclude the Parliament building.
sam:
The left’s plan: leave Iraq, save money, get elected forever.
Oh, and let millions more Iraqis die, utterly ruin any chance of an ally trusting America again, allow terrorists to have a completely safe haven, give Iran unfettered access to even more of the middle east and a buffer zone in which to hide their nukes…
Great plan, huh?
Stumbley and Lee
You did it to yourselves. Trying to blame others for you poor judgemnet and vicious political ambition is making you look weaker and weaker with each passing day. Is there some parallel universe where one can start a needless war and then effectively pass the blame to others when it goes as badly as warned. Is the web a bridge to that universe. Which way is up where you are?
Still dodging the LETTER, Sam. He’s there, you’re not. He says we’re winning. He says the rest of the military shares his view. What….you think they’ve all got some sort of “death wish”? You really think that they “can’t figure out” they’re getting their asses handed to them?
Please, America, keep the ammo coming…..we want to delay the inevitable. And besides, all the killing and raping and torturing we do around here is WORTH dying for.
Whose deluded, and who will be to blame?
Look in the mirror, Sam.