The Enemy Within

An article by the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Bush says 30,000 Iraqi civilians dead in war He says 'terrorists, Saddamists will continue violence' ”, is just one in thousands of articles that seek to undermine US efforts in Iraq.

No one should be surprised when the MSM (mainstream media) resort to stopping up their ears, spouting lies, and shouting ‘lalala we’re not listening.’ It seems to be a common malady lately.

Although the San Francisco Chronicle’s article included quotes from Bush including, “The Iraqi people are stepping forward to claim their liberty, and they will have it,'' and “Thanks to the courage of the Iraqi people, the year 2005 will be recorded as a turning point in the history of Iraq, the history of the Middle East, and the history of freedom.” But no, of all the quotes they choose for their headline, they tell us how many Iraq civilians are dead, and that violence is continuing. True statements, but only a portion of the truth.

Same article, another quote: "I regret that the American people have still not received a plan that identifies the remaining political, military and economic objectives that must be met in order to succeed,'' said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Maybe Mr. Reid doesn’t understand. Political objectives? From Bush’s 35 page "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq", political victory means that Iraq is, “meeting political milestones, building democratic institutions. . . with a fully constitutional government in place. . . well integrated into the international community.” Not specific enough? Further down in the document see, “The Political Track”:

The Political Track involves working to forge a broadly supported national compact for democratic governance by helping the Iraqi government:
>Isolate enemy elements from those who can be won over to the political process by countering false propaganda and demonstrating to all Iraqis that they have a stake in a democratic Iraq;
>Engage those outside the political process and invite in those willing to turn away from violence through ever-expanding avenues of participation; and
>Build stable, pluralistic, and effective national institutions that can protect the interests of all Iraqis, and facilitate Iraq's full integration into the international community.

Military objectives? Right after “The Political Track” see “The Security Track.” Economic Objectives? See “The Economic Track.” Or, if the above hasn’t satisfied your need for a plan, see Part II of "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq": Strategy in Detail. Mr. Reid? You can open your eyes now. The plan is called "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq".

Let us return to the original article. Yet another quote: “ "It's not going to get better with us over there," Murtha told reporters at a Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce reception.” Murtha, let me direct your attention to something you must have missed.

See Bush’s fact sheet: Democracy in Iraq, “Two and a half years ago, Iraq was in the grip of a cruel dictator. Since then, Iraqis have assumed sovereignty of their country, held free elections, drafted a democratic constitution, and approved that constitution in a nationwide referendum.” It already has gotten better with us over there.

A glaring error came to my attention this morning. A headline from the website http://www.zmag.org/ says, “In Growing Numbers, Public Opposes Iraq War, While Most Congressional Democrats Play It 'Safe'. This article was published on December 9th, the same day that MSNBC’s article “Bush’s approval rating rises to 42 percent” was published.

While I was reading the "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq", I came across a section titled The Strategy of Our Enemies. One line in particular struck me, “The enemy's strategy, in short, is to intimidate, terrorize, and tear down -- a strategy with short-term advantage because it is easier to tear down than to build up.”

I think that one of America’s enemies lurks in the MSM. They seek to tear down, they seek to cause fear in the American people, and they seek to intimidate the American public into backing down. I can only hope that Bush was right when he said that this short term strategy will fail, “But this strategy is not sustainable in the long term because it is rejected by the overwhelming mass of the Iraqi [in this case American] population.”