Carol Platt Liebau: Kelly on Zarqawi's Bad Week

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Kelly on Zarqawi's Bad Week

Jack Kelly's piece reminds everyone that we are fighting Al Qaida -- yes, Al Qaeda, the same people who flew airplanes into buildings on 9/11 -- in Iraq.

And still the Democrats want to talk about withdrawing.

Guess that tells you everything you need to know.

5 Comments:

Blogger Anonymous said...

Actually Zarqawi appears to be having another good week (for him anyway).

1.) He's still alive (apparently).

2.) He continues to evade 160,000 soldiers hunting him.

3.)He continues to wreak yet more death and destruction with no standing army, and relatively few resources.

4.) He does this all in a country currently hosting the mightiest and most advanced military in history.

Pardon my cynicism but he doesn't appear to be hurting me. Am I missing something?

12:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was dejected last week after the Senate Republicans went all French on us. But I sense the backlash is coming to the Democrats.

Yep. I'm feeling much better now.

Adding certainty to my hunch is the high pitch of the moonbat screams over being forced to face their own rhetoric.

Yep. We're back on track!

1:20 PM  
Blogger Matt Brinkman said...

Jack Kelly's piece reminds everyone that we are fighting Al Qaida -- yes, Al Qaeda, the same people who flew airplanes into buildings on 9/11 -- in Iraq.

Yeah, it is too bad that the Bush administration didn't take advantage of their multiple opportunities to capture/kill Zarqawi prior to the war.

It's also a shame that the Bush administration decided to ignore the advice of the General Shinseki and field an inadequate force* to secure the peace--leaving al Qaeda to turn Iraq into a terrorist breeeding ground when they had a negligible presence there prior to the war.

The Bush administration has given us inadequate planning, poor follow-through, failure to keep their eyes on the ball, and a complete disregard for taking responsibility for their own actions.

Guess that tells you everything you need to know.

Yep.

*To anyone who wants to make a big deal about my choice of the phrase "inadequate force" feel free. You know I'm taking about quantity and not quality here.

6:44 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sadly, must concur with Mr. Twister in his on-the-mark contention that inadequate planning and allocation of sufficient force at the outset of the campaign in Iraq has contributed mightily to the current substantial challenges the US faces there today.

Ironically, the so-called “Powell Doctrine” that Rumsfeld eschewed would have had it about right. That is, before we decide to apply military force, it’s crucial think it all the way through to the desired end state. Determine how much force and how many assets will be necessary to accomplish this (not under best case assumptions, but rather more toward worst-case assumptions), then apply more than sufficient force to accomplish the identified objectives through all phases of the campaign. Bring more to the fight than you think you’ll need, not just enough to win under best-case assumptions.

The administration in general, and Rumsfeld in particular, blew off the Powell Doctrine and went with minimum force to achieve their objectives, under best case or near best case assumptions, and failed to come close to planning adequately for “Phase IV”, the post “Decisive Operations” phase. No question, the administration has made some major mistakes in their conduct of this war.

Believe, however, that now that we’re committed in Iraq, it’s critically important to see this thing through to a successful conclusion. There are a lot of negative things occurring in Iraq, to be sure. On the other hand, there are, arguably, even a lot more positive things occurring, quietly, under the radar. There’s more going on there than just car bombs and prisoner abuse. Our outstanding officers, NCOs, and soldiers in the field may yet pull this thing out for us. I sincerely hope, and believe, they will succeed, and continue to proudly support their efforts.

5:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the simple question you should be asking yourself is were these guys in Iraq before we invaded? The answer of course is no. We created them. Iraq is radical Islam's biggest recruiting tool.

Why should we start drawing down? Because if there is a stable democracy there as you suggest by far the best thing we could do prove we aren't occupiers of a puppet regime is to leave.

I find it amusing that someone so opposed to having foreigners from Mexico on our soil doesn't understand Iraqi (and Arab) hatred of having a foreign military on their soil.

1:41 PM  

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