The President gave a pretty decent speech last night. I think he’s wrong on a lot of domestic stuff, but I fully support the war in Iraq.
Last December, four short months ago, more than 11 million people expressed their opinion. They said loud and clear at the ballot box that they desire a future of freedom and unity.
And now it is time for the leaders to put aside their differences, reach out across political, religious and sectarian lines, and form a unity government that will earn the trust and confidence of all Iraqis.
My administration, led by Ambassador Zal Khalilzad, is helping and will continue to help the Iraqis achieve this goal.
The situation on the ground remains tense. In the face of continued reports about killings and reprisals, I understand how some Americans have had their confidence shaken.
Others look at the violence they see each night on their television screens and they wonder how I can remain so optimistic about the prospects of success in Iraq. They wonder what I see that they don’t.
So today I’d like to share a concrete example of progress in Iraq that most Americans do not see every day in their newspapers or on their television screens. I’m going to tell you the story of a northern Iraqi city called Tal Afar, which was once a key base of operations for Al Qaida and is today a free city that gives reason for hope for a free Iraq.
Tal Afar is a city of more than 200,000 residents, roughly the population of Akron, Ohio. In many ways Tal Afar is a microcosm or Iraq. It has dozens of tribes of different ethnicity and religion. Most of the city residents are Sunnis of Turkoman origin.
I’ve written about Tall Afar several times, here, here and here. Accentuating the positive stories in Iraq is vital.
Of course, Bush has, for a variety of reasons, earned the blind hatred of nearly half of the politically active segments of the population. These people will criticize and question any success story. If God himself came down from Heaven and appeared on CNN announcing to the American public that George W. Bush was the right man to lead the nation, these people would still be sending e-mail like this to me over here in Iraq:
“Bush is a killer war monger, a piece of crap, another bastard who is a chicken shit turn coat who could not support this country in the fight in nam. . .” and “. . .the solders (sic) are again little boys that have chosen to play the game ‘kil’l (sic), so if they get killed — oh well, that’s the game. . .”
I truly wonder what people like the man who wrote the above do for a living and strongly suspect that they are some of the same people who have been sucking the government tit that I continue to support with my tax dollars when I’m not wearing the uniform. People like him make me want to throw my support behind Bush more than I would otherwise. After all, not doing so sometimes feels like letting the idiots win. I look at the people who call our President dumb and make PhotoShop pictures of his face on a monkey’s body, and I think to myself, my God, we’re raising a generation of people who don’t have anything useful to contribute to our society.
Debate has to be intelligent for it to be useful. Meanwhile, in Iraq, Iraqis and Americans are dying while you mock the President. Do you really want to leave Iraq in the hands of ruthless murderers? If you do, then maybe one day, your town will be visited by the same sort of animals masquerading as humans. Maybe you’ll have the “pleasure” of living in a lawless place where your death could be hiding just around any corner. Maybe you’ll have the opportunity to sleep restlessly every night wondering when your house will be mortared because you happen to be (insert ethnic or religious affiliation of your choice). Perhaps you’ll enjoy watching your wife gang raped in front of you before you are shot in the head by a gang of thugs.
Is the President perfect? Certainly not. Should he have to deal with healthy criticism? Certainly. Healthy is the keyword. Most of his opponents appear to me to be mentally unhealthy and projecting their own shortcomings onto him. You don’t solve problems by running away from them. Iraq had been a problem for 30 years. Now it’s being solved, and yes, it does hurt.