20061024 ScrappleFace says Drop the course

ScrappleFace says “Drop the course”

October 25^th, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff

For those who do not read ScrappleFace, (“News fairly unbalanced. We report. You decipher.,”) Mr. Scott Ott has an uncanny ability of encapsulating a complex issue in several short paragraphs. ScrappleFace should be on the must read list for political junkies – who know the issues AND have a sense of humor.

I happen to be one of the “critics who say Democrat war policy consists of little more than attacks on President George Bush…”

To be certain, I happen to NOT feel that to criticize the president is un-American or unpatriotic. Quite to the contrary. It is a cherished right and we should all defend the rights of critics to say what they want to say.

However, their rights are our rights also – and I reserve the right to criticize folks who are criticizing the president for purely superficial political reasons. Such criticism lacks integrity and creditability.

In an era when everyone wants to talk about their rights, no one seems to talking about the responsibilities that are a critical part of those “rights.”

When a national leader or even a local community leader or columnist offers-up criticism on such a basic national security issue; please offer a reality-based thoughtful plan.

Criticisms which personally attack the president’s character uttered in the same paragraph are usually automatically dismissed as cheap partisan-politics of the worst order and are never mistaken for statespersonship; which is the hallmark of venerable leaders, who words, deeds and actions easily transcend the moral relativism and situational ethics that pervades much of such criticism. (Read: when President Bill Clinton did the same thing or failed to do what the critics say President Bush should do…that’s okay…)

In the month before our mid-term elections, the violence in Iraq has reached unbearable proportions. Why? Because the jihadists are aware that if the advocates of “cut and run” in Iraq prevail in the upcoming US elections, the US will perhaps leave the country and Iraq will be the Afghanistan after the Soviet forces vacated in 1989. Instead of helping the country re-build, we ignored it. In 1994, 10,000 people were killed in Kabul alone.

One example which makes me bristle is the thought that we need to engage in multi-lateral talks with countries such as Syria and Iran, about the future of Iraq.

Please tell me such suggestions are a joke. Syria and Iran have no interest in democracy in Iraq. To be sure, they would like to see a stable Iraq. A stable extreme Islamic Republic that is.

The concept of a stable Iraq for Iran and Syria would resemble the Taliban government which took over in Afghanistan in 1996. So, please tell, just what, pray tell, are going to talk with Syria and Iran about?

In my latest Tentacle column, “When It Rains Frogs,” I said: “And, let's be clear, the war in Iraq is getting old and increasingly looking like a never-ending quagmire. It is time for the Iraqis to assume responsibility for their future and it needs to happen yesterday. But the alternative is not to cut and run and leave Iraq to become like Afghanistan was in the 1990s after the Soviets withdrew. It then became a terrorist training ground, with results that we continue to confront. At this point, most everyone, liberal or conservative can agree that it is time to be looking for a defined exit strategy.”

To “stay the course,” is no longer tenable, as it has been defined as continuing our current approach until hell freezes over or the jihadists give up. The conflict has evolved into something never considered when we first when in to do away with the murderous regime of Saddam Hussein. Now that the conflict has evolved, our approach needs to evolve.

But “dropping the course” is not an option.

Democrats Unveil Iraq War Strategy: ‘Drop the Course’

by Scott Ott

(2006-10-24) — Just two weeks out from national elections, Democrats today unveiled the Iraq war strategy they will force the president to implement when they control Congress.

In an effort to answer critics who say Democrat war policy consists of little more than attacks on President George Bush, presumptive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, held a news conference to explain the new strategy, dubbed “Drop the Course” as a counterpoint to the president’s often-maligned “Stay the Course.”

“Victory isn’t always about winning,” said Rep. Pelosi. “Those of us who went to college know that sometimes when the going gets tough, the tough drop out. Who among us hasn’t experienced the exhilaration of walking out of the registrar’s office after dropping a course you were failing. America deserves to have that feeling again.”

Asked to respond to the Democrats “Drop the Course” plan, Mr. Bush said, “I guess if you see freedom and national security as electives, that make sense.”

The president added that the new plan didn’t surprise him, “since the Democrats so often cut the class, it was inevitable they’d drop the course.”

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