May 02 2008
Whose Credibility Is Shot In The World From The War On Terror?
After nearly 7 years of war since 9-11 it is worth sitting back and seeing whose credibility is shot after all the give and take over the years. I want to start by pointing to an article that Ed Morrissey discussed today to highlight this topic. Ed Morrissey notes that ‘credence’ (street ‘cred) for the British forces is wanting since their Basra stratefy attempted the same weak-kneed, pull-back approach championed by so many on the left and the two Democrats running for President. The Brits demonstrated the foolishness of the ‘run-away’ theory in spades for the world to see, and the result was Islamo Fascists taking over the southern part of Iraq and the destruction of the street cred:
Britain will maintain a garrison of 4,000 troops at Basra airport for the forseeable future, whatever the pressures on the armed forces, defence officials said last night. They described the British garrison as being there “for the long term†after talks in London yesterday between General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, Des Browne, the defence secretary, and Sir Jock Stirrup, chief of the defence staff.
It was said that the troops were needed to continue their task of training Iraqi forces and also to maintain what officials called “political credence†with the US.
Ed Morrissey notes the changing tide regarding which approach – Bush/Petraeus or Surrendercrat – as proven to be the more credible:
“Political credenceâ€; at one time, people wondered about our credence with the British. British commanders openly criticized the conduct of the war, especially after the start of the surge. Now, however, with both Basra and Helmand province in Afghanistan turning into debacles over the last couple of years, the British have seen their strategies fail in spectacularly embarrassing ways, and suddenly they need to regain political credence with us.
Sometimes certain strategies are best left in movies and not attempted in real life. The fact is many people have lost credibility over the years. The SurrenderMedia which keeps predicting quagmires and second comings of Vietnam has become a joke. To prove their point they have soiled their reputations with false stories and miscalls throughout. Who can forget how they carried the Surrendercrats’ water about how the Surge was a failure before it began? And how about all those declarations on Sadr’s forces in Basra had won the day? Yeah, the only thing for certain with the news media today is whatever they say is at least partially wrong.
The Surrendercrats in Congress have faired even worse. They predicted they could runaway from Iraq and force a surrender to al-Qaeda. They were wrong. They predicted the Surge would fail and then put on a childish spectacle trying to belittle Gen Petraeus (and by extension the men and women fighting in Iraq) when the Surge did start to work. They spent months trying to cut funds for our troops as they claimed they supported them – it was comical. And the only people with lower public support than President Bush is the Dem-led Congress and the news media.
But the other group that lost credibility is the real story. The Muslims Street rose up to fight in this war and – against all the prediction of the SurrenderMedia, the Surrendercrats and the Leftists in the EU – it took up arms against al-Qaeda, who has lost much of its credibility in the Muslim World:
Despite an apparent upsurge of terrorism, including the attack on President Karzai of Afghanistan, a return of suicide bombings in Iraq and a spate of assassinations in Lebanon and North Africa, in the Muslim heartlands al-Qaeda is on the retreat. The call on devout Muslims to purge the Islamic world of its corrupt rulers, that fell on such fertile ground in the Arabian peninsula, is losing its pull. In Saudi Arabia, a police crackdown and the arrest and re-education of scores of extremist preachers have persuaded thousands to renounce their former loyalty to Osama bin Laden. In Iraq, the targeting of civilians by suicide bombers and al-Qaeda’s torture of sectarian enemies has so sickened tribal leaders that most are joining in the fight against foreign extremists. And in North Africa, security forces have recently killed some 20 suspected militants.
The virulent ideology, spawned by anger at Western troops in Saudi Arabia and the perceived corruption of ruling elites, has, according to senior intelligence officers, been dissipated as terrorist groups increasingly become a front for drug smuggling, extortion, crime or ethnic hatred. Frustrated zealots have seen their attempts to rid Muslim societies of Western influence mocked and thwarted. Moderates have spoken out, Governments across the Middle East have woken up to the threat and nowhere has crude Islamism triumphed. Another spectacular atrocity remains a possibility, but the core ideology has less traction across the Muslim world.
…
Al-Qaeda remains a danger, but there is now a real chance that this backward-looking ideology can be defeated. Global terrorism is still a serious threat and parts of al-Qaeda’s deadly virus may mutate. The West must remain vigilant to confront these mutations wherever they appear.
The story goes on to note al-Qaeda is not completely beaten – yet. But look at the trend lines: It has lost almost all its ground in Iraq at a terrible price, barely holding on by hiding and intimidation. It has been pushed out of Lebanon. It has waned in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It has had to retreat to the tribal areas of Pakistan. And it keeps crying for help from the Muslim community which apparently is not coming.
al-Qaeda still has followers. Heck, there are still Nazis around in some dark crevasses here and there. But the tide is turning against al-Qaeda as more and more of Islam sees it as the enemy of Islam and not its future. Soon too the world will realize America is not the enemy, not at fault, not the source of all ills and see us as worthy and strong friends and allies. The far left is screwing up this election cycle big time. They cannot resist bashing everything America does, even when it succeeds and is proven right. Americans can see past the hysteria and the liberal delusions. They are not so easily mesmerized or manipulated by the news media as some think. You cannot have approval ratings in the tank and be seen as a respected source of information.
The world is sorting all this out after the years of fighting and, being the optimists they are, they will see that things are not as dark and dreary as those lusting for political power try to make them out to be. We have a summer and fall to go to the election and al-Qaeda and the Islamo Fascists may not be able to hold out that long. Only time will tell who will stand credible and who will not when the dust settles in a couple of years from now. But many have been shown to be not to be very credible already.
The U.S. media is world class when reporting on political news. However, warfare and politics do not mix very well. I am guessing that this is at least part of the reason the the media does not understand the fundamentals of warfare very well.
Now, however, with both Basra and Helmand province in Afghanistan turning into debacles over the last couple of years, the British have seen their strategies fail in spectacularly embarrassing ways, and suddenly they need to regain political credence with us.
That’s a profound point because from the Left and other quarters, it’s the U.S. who always needs to take into consideration the moral indignation of other countries. Nothing we do is correct. We do not a right to our self interest.
Likewise, no other country need be worried if they cause us an offense. All other countries are by definition on a superior moral high ground.
It also emphasizes my point completely:
Surrender, appeasement, and “being nice”, NEVER work with Terrorists!
To quote the Jawa Report’s Masthead:
“Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to Evil”
Thomas Mann
The Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Left = Democrats in this country, will NEVER “get” it.!
there you go conflating iraq and 9.11 again.
“…The story goes on to note al-Qaeda is not completely beaten – yet. But look at the trend lines: It has lost almost all its ground in Iraq at a terrible price, barely holding on by hiding and intimidation…” did the story mention that al queda wasn’t in iraq until we provided them the opening. 5 years later and the civilian leadership has almost completely “completely beaten” a problem of their own making. hooha. sis-boom-bah. nice cheer-leading.
did the story mention that al queda wasn’t in iraq until we provided them the opening.
Complete and UTTER lie and fabrication, “Worm”, but then again, Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Lying Leftist Traitor Democratic Nutbags have been living this fantasyland lie, among many others, for going on 7 years now!
Of course, I don’t expect any better either, you all continually manage to live down to your reputations!
The good thing about Benedict Arnold, was at least he served his country before he betrayed it, unlike you Treasonous Nutbags!
No one in this thread had ever mentioned 9/11 until you did, Norm/Sooth/Conman.
So just who’s doing the conflating here? Not that it helps your argument. Actually, not that you even have an argument. Actually, not that you ever have any 2 sequential thoughts that have anything to do with each other.
And Lind is still an idiot.
Btw, get used to saying “President McCain.”
wws…do you eveven know what you are reading…first f’ing sentence of the post…”…After nearly 7 years of war since 9-11 it is worth sitting back and seeing whose credibility is shot after all the give and take over the years…”
dale…don’t let facts bother you.
Norm, it appears that the only one bothered with the facts is you!
Worm:
Taqiyah
Category Error
Psychological Displacement
Cognitive Dissonance
Stockholm Syndrome
Psychosis
Bush-Derangement Syndrome
Google them “Worm”, they are the pathological and sociological disorders that Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Leftist Lying Democratic Nutbag Traitors like yourself, and your ilk, suffer from!
Its a sad state of affairs, really; your entire Cult of Anti-American/Pro-Jihadi Leftist Traitors suffer from Mental Illnesses…
But you shouldn’t be upset, it makes you all “special”, and it fits right into your culture of self-victimization, self-denial, self-bestowal of “minority” status, etc.
Beeeeeeeeeep!
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!
Wait, what’s that sound…??
Oh, “Worm”, grab your Single-Bar, battered Football helmet, the Short Yellow Bus is outside your Mom’s house, waiting for you!
I really do not care very much if any terrorist orgainzation was present or not in Iraq when we invaded. I DO care that they are there NOW and are attempting to fight our armed forces. Personally, I prefer this match-up. Sure as heck better than having them attack any of our many other possible targets.
I have noticed that the U.S. has not had an attack on any of our embassies (Which is considered to be U.S. soil) or our ‘Mainland’ since (Now that it has been brought up) 9/11. I also prefer this to what had been going on for the previous 8 to 10 years. We had been hit in 1993, 1995, 1998 and 2000. I include the attack on our barracks in 1995 (Saudia Ariaba) and the U.S.S. Cole in 2000 because these were outside of the current combat area. Have we been hit outside of Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11?
Loser assholes like norm don’t care about the Present or the Future, they only care about acting like jealous women and tearing down Bush.
Amen, Joe…Amen! Apparently Norm would prefer the “opening” to be New York City instead of Iraq.
And I always think its hysterical when today’s libs KNOW that terrorists are in over 60 countries around the world…just not Iraq. L-O-L!!! Suuuuurrrrreeee.
And to boot, where in the heck did they think the terrorists would go after we ran them out of Afghanistan? Just Pakistan? Suuuuuurrrrrre.
No wonder most libs of today are dysfunctional. And absolutely unacceptable as leaders of the Free World.
Curious as to where is the evidence that al Quada was NOT in Iraq before 9/11. Was this from the reliable reporting of the free press under Saddam or pure conjecture from those suffering from the debilitating illness known as BDS.
A.J., by the way…loooooooooooove the Monty Python reference.
🙂
I wonder if norm and his ilk think that Zarqawi was running an amusement camp in Iraq. For that matter there was Abu Nidal, and let us not forget Yasin, the one fugitive from the first attack on the WTC never brought to justice. Why? Because he took refuge in Iraq. He disappeared shortly before the invasion. hmmmm.
Point is that Saddam’s regime had been on this country’s list of terrorist supporting regimes long before the invasion. If norm and his ilk don’t like that, blame the Democrats. They are the ones who were rattling all those sabers back in the 90’s, threatening Saddam on a daily basis.
And btw, the credibility of the United States is higher now than it was a decade ago.
The Surrender Media is wrong on the economy too. April’s jobless numbers are in and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.0%. This is on top of news earlier this week that the economy grew, not contracted, in the first quarter of 08.
And it looks like the voters in the UK are on the Labor party there with the Conservative party looking to make a sweeping victory and possibly push Major our of office and replace him with a Conservative Prime Minister.
dang, messed up that tag 🙁
We now know that the entire claim that “Al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq before” rests on the fact that the terror group in Iraq run by Zwahiri used a different name before it merged with Al Qaeda.
Good catch on the British election, cross, although I think you’ve got the names a little off. Labor is indeed taking a beating, but Gordon Brown, the current PM, isn’t in danger until 2010 unless his own party rises up and ousts him because he becomes too much of a loser for even them to take.
The big news, due later this evening, is whether or not “Red Ken”, the jihadist loving marxist Mayor of London, a member of Labor, will be ousted after 8 years. Looks very likely.
These are all local elections, not MP elections, so Parliament is not directly affected. But returns so far are looking like:
Conservatives: 44%
Liberal Democrats (middle of the road party) 25%
Labor (current government) 24%
balance to independants and very small parties.
Gordon Brown has been very pro-EU, and has tried to integrate England with the continent, as well as espousing most of the talking points both Dem candidates here are trying to sell. The English appear to have come out and voted 3-1 against. As I said, his position is not directly affected – yet.