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Support Our Troops In The War In Iraq

Bush Fights Back

With his Veteran's Day speech the president and his team seem committed to going on the offensive.

On Veterans' Day, the president fought back. In a major speech Friday at Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania, President Bush defended the war in Iraq. Most notably, he defended the probity and honesty with which his administration made the case for the war to remove Saddam. At last, the president confronted the slander that he "lied us into war" - a slander propagated by his opponents with amazing success.

Here is the key passage in Bush's speech:

While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and antiwar critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs. They also know that intelligence agencies from around the world agreed with our assessment of Saddam Hussein. They know the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing his development and possession of weapons of mass destruction. And many of these critics supported my opponent during the last election, who explained his position to support the resolution in the Congress this way: 'When I vote to give the president of the United States the authority to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein, it is because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a threat and a grave threat to our security.' That's why more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate, who had access to the same intelligence, voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power.

And then the president went on offense:

These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will. As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them. Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that, whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory.

Bush's counterpunch hit home. Ted Kennedy was upset. He found the speech "deeply regrettable." How dare the president try "to rebuild his own credibility?" How dare the president defend his honor--and the country's? For the nation's honor is at stake, too. If we went to war based on lies told by our president, then it is a disgrace to us all. It is a further disgrace that we reelected him. It is yet a further disgrace that Congress continues to support this war, by appropriating funds for it. It is a disgrace that Senator Kennedy has not moved to have the president impeached.

At least the anti-American left, which wants to get out of Iraq immediately and to impeach the president, is consistent. But Kennedy--and his colleagues like Sen. Harry Reid - do not really want to follow the logic of their accusations. They would rather just damage the president - and the country's foreign policy - and enjoy the political effect.

Weekly Standard

And the attacks have been working. In last week's Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey, 57 percent of Americans endorsed that proposition that the president "deliberately misled people to make the case for war with Iraq," compared to 35 percent who thought he "gave the most accurate information he had." Five months ago, those numbers were 44 percent "misled" versus 47 percent "accurate information." Eight months ago, shortly after Bush's second term began, there were only 41 percent who thought Bush had "misled" them, while 53 percent credited the president with being "accurate." No new information has appeared in those eight months. All that has happened is an unanswered assault by Bush's enemies. The White House figured the election was over and didn't recognize that the anti-Bush campaign would continue.

Now the president and his team seem committed to fighting back. They have the advantage that the facts are on their side. As several commentators have pointed out in this magazine and elsewhere - most recently Norman Podhoretz in the December Commentary - the Democratic charge that Bush lied us into war is itself a lie. Lies can work when unrefuted. In a healthy democracy, they tend to boomerang when confronted and exposed. Now Bush has begun to refute the lie. He needs to keep doing so, and also to continue making the positive case for why the war was right and necessary.

If the American people really come to a settled belief that Bush lied us into war, his presidency will be over. He won't have the basic level of trust needed to govern. His initiatives, domestic and foreign, will founder. Support for the war on terror will wane. The lie that Bush lied us into war threatens the Bush presidency in a way no ordinary political charge does. Bush needs to refute it - and to keep on refuting it - for his sake, for the nation's, and for the sake of the truth.

William Kristol. Bush Fights Back. © Copyright 2005, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved. 11/21/2005, Volume 011, Issue 10.

The So-Called Support For Our Troops'

If you do not support my mission, you do not support me.

I am a soldier in the U.S. Army Reserves. I enlisted because I support Operation Iraqi Freedom and wanted to do my part to help. I am sick and tired of anti-war liberals who are outspoken against the war, but also claim they support the troops. That is really starting to piss me off.

The one thing that pisses me off the most is when people have "Bush Sucks" or "I hate Bush" bumper stickers on their car, and then next to it, a yellow "Support our Troops" ribbon. I am sorry; you cannot support me if you do not support my commander in chief. I do not want your "support." Leave me alone. Those yellow magnets just anger me in general. The real reason people get those things is so they won't feel guilty about making absolutely no sacrifices to help America win the war. People who display them think that paying a few bucks for a magnet constitutes "supporting the troops." Well, how about doing something useful, like sending a deployed soldier a letter or, better yet, join the military. This war is truly a war that asks for the sacrifice of only a small fraction of America. This is why people were apt to support the war at the beginning, and now they can so easily decide not to support it. When people do not understand the sacrifices that are being made in order to bring peace and freedom to Iraq, it makes it a lot easier to turn against it. The media are playing a strong role in turning the public against the war, deciding only to report the negative aspects of the war and never reporting on the heroism our men and women in uniform are displaying on the battlefield every day. Given that the main thing the general public is doing to support the war is to slap a yellow ribbon on their car, how can you expect people to realize what is really going on? Liberals always think that soldiers are somehow less intelligent or cannot think for themselves, saying we were swindled by President George W. Bush and his lies into fighting the Iraq war.

However, in poll after poll of military personnel, support for the war always has remained very high. Members of the military believe the Iraq war is right, and that it can and will be won. The only people who seem to be impatient and are calling for the United States to quit are the ones making no sacrifice at all.

Honestly, a lot of liberals who say they "support the troops" simply use the phrase as a political tool to oppose the war. When Michael Moore throws numbers around on soldiers killed and uses their names and pictures, he really doesn't give a damn about the soldiers, but he knows he can stir up emotion from the public. In reference to the anti-war Joel Stein, from a column in the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 24, the anti-war crowd needs to say what it actually wants to say: "I don't like war AND I don't support the people fighting it." If you do not support my mission, you do not support me. The 2,241 heroes who have sacrificed their lives to bring freedom to the Middle East must be taken back by those who actually support them and what they were fighting for. Their names and faces must not be used simply as a political hot button for anti-war activists who hold "vigils" to "remember them" and oppose the war. If I go to Iraq and die for my country, I'll be damned if someone like Michael Moore or anyone else against this war uses my name to oppose it.

Morgan W. Kavanaugh is a University student and private first class in the U.S. Army Reserves. The so-called Support for our troops. The Minnesota Daily. February 1, 2006.

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