Allawi's Iraq

From PoliPundit, excerpts of Prime Minister Allawi's speech and a powerful wrapup by Alexander McClure that unleashes a stinging (a much deserved) assault on our generation's Tokyo Rose. And why was John Kerry speaking in a Columbus firehouse while most Senators and Representatives were listening attentively and giving standing ovations to Prime Minister Allawi?

...They warned that there could be no successful handover of sovereignty by the end of June. We proved them wrong. A sovereign Iraqi government took over control two days early. They doubted whether a national conference could be staged this August. We proved them wrong. Despite intimidation and violence, over 1,400 citizens, a quarter of them women, from all regions and from every ethnic, religious and political grouping in Iraq, elected a national council. And I pledge to you today, we’ll prove them wrong again over the elections... ...The transition in Iraq from brutal dictatorship to freedom and democracy is not only an Iraqi endeavor, it is an international one. More than 30 countries are represented in Iraq with troops on the ground in harm’s way. We Iraqis are grateful for each and every one of these courageous men and women... ...When governments negotiate with terrorists, everyone in the free world suffers. When political leaders sound the siren of defeatism in the face of terrorism, it only encourages more violence. Working together, we will defeat the killers, and we will do this by refusing to bargain about our most fundamental principles... There is nothing which should make every American’s heart beat faster than to hear a representative of the land where Western Civilization was born pledge to the nation which has saved Western Civilization, not once, but twice, in the last 60 years, that the people of his country will defend us too. The Old World has reached out its hand to the New World. I believe that George W. Bush will be remembered for many things, but the powerful symbolism in the House Chamber and at the White House shall not soon be forgotten... While the heir to the legacy of Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Reagan was discussing the future triumph of democracy and freedom in the world, a sad farce was taking place in Columbus, Ohio. The most pathetic disgrace to be nominated for any national political office since the days of Richard M. Johnson, namely Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, responded to Prime Minister Allawi’s speech. The content of it is pretty much what you would expect from a man who supported the victory of the Vietcong, the Communists in South America, and opposed defending the people of Kuwait from invasion. He said Allawi was lying, and inferred that President Bush “let Bin Laden escape.” He demands that the President call for an international conference. Senator, you have faith in the “international community.” However, I have great faith that the Iraqi people will rise up on their own under a heroic leader and win this war against terror and oppression. And I have an even greater faith - that my fellow countrymen and countrywomen will spurn your brand of defeatism on November 2, 2004 and leave it in the dustbin of history with Marxism and Facism, and ultimately, terrorism.

PoliPundit - Allawi & Kerry

Allawi, part II

Hugh Hewitt has another powerful take on Kerry's anti-US, anti-military, anti-Allawi, defeatist, terrorist-encouraging, slapdash and politically expedient behavior:

Just how much damage can Kerry do to the war effort in the 40 days of self-destruction he has left? John Edwards will help make it a record certainly, using the Q word today... So John Kerry will end his political career as he began it, attacking America's role in a just war, undermining the morale of the troops who are fighting it, and expressing contempt for the leadership of a nation struggling to be free of oppressors. It is the only mark of consistency he's displayed, but not one that many voters will admire.

Hewitt - Allawi & Kerry

Kerry disses yet another Friend in the War on Terror

It wasn't enough for the Democratic leadership to attempt to destabilize our alliance with Australia, to meet with groups tied to terrorists, or to take both sides on the Palestinian question and the Patriot Act.

...Now the Democrats, led by John Kerry, are undermining US troop morale, encouraging terrorists, and echoing defeatist themes from his undistinguished, consistent track record of taking the anti-freedom positions: the Soviet Union, Nicaragua, Vietnam. And now Iraq. Read on. ...if you want to be the next president, and the Prime Minister of Iraq comes to Washington to address a joint session of Congress, where should you be? In the U.S. Capitol chamber! Not in a Columbus, Ohio firehouse! Senator, if you win, you're going to have to work with this guy - or his successor. Kerry should have tried to get a meeting with Allawi himself, to try to make the challenger look like Bush's equal... Major mistake number two: Even if you can't be there, you don't take a jab at Allawi. ...Instead, Kerry is essentially calling Allawi a liar, and continuing his gloom and doom rhetoric about Iraq.

No wonder terrorists, mullahs and ayatollahs prefer John Kerry over George Bush. And what does that say about John Kerry's fitness to command?



TWO DISASTROUS MOVES BY KERRY

The Chicago Tribune Pounds Kerry on Shape-Shifting

After his 2002 Senate vote to authorize the war, Kerry often characterized disarming Hussein as "the right decision." In May 2003, Kerry said on ABC that while he "would have preferred" more diplomacy before going to war, "I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein. And when the president made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him." As recently as last month, Kerry was sticking by that principle, stating that even if he had known the U.S. wouldn't find unconventional weapons in Iraq or prove close ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda, he still would have voted to authorize the war. But succeeding weeks have confronted Kerry with two harsh realities: His presidential candidacy has ebbed in public opinion polls, and Iraq has grown bloodier. So it was bizarre, although not exactly shocking, to hear Kerry veer left during a speech on Monday: "We have traded a dictator for a chaos that has left America less secure ..." he said. "Invading Iraq has created a crisis of historic proportions, and if we do not change course, there is a prospect of a war with no end in sight." Kerry, who knows a few things about changing course, evidently believes he and his Senate colleagues were right to give President Bush the authority to wage war, but that Bush was wrong to use the authority...

Chicago Tribune: Channeling Howard Dean

The view from Egypt

If you boil this down, the equation is simple. Acting like a rollover patsy (can you hear me, Jimmy Carter?) gets innocent people killed. This was proved by Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and many other dictators and tyrants. But projecting strength does just the opposite. It saves lives and intimidates those who would hurt the weak.

...The attacks on Jewish cemeteries and synagogues in France, explosions in Turkey, assassinations and booby- trapped cars in Iraq, suicide bombings of buses in Bir Shiba and the massacre in a school in Beslan in North Ossetia have all rained undreamed of blessings on the Bush administration and its re-election campaign... ...US military policies also appear to be tending towards a preference for long-distance strikes aimed at destroying the infrastructure of nations branded as terrorist. There is little doubt that the US will continue its campaign to topple regimes it classifies as uncooperative in the war against terrorism and to intervene in the affairs of those nations whose economic and cultural conditions it feels have made them breeding grounds for terrorism...

The view from Egypt

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