Monday, December 12, 2005
1,000 Days?
Yesterday, December 11, 2005, our local paper ran an article by an AP reproter named Sharon Cohen stating that this is the one thousandth day of the Iraq war. I don't know why, but this article sparked me into finally doing something I've been concidering for some time now, starting a blog to get my feelings out. Now that it has started, my first post is going to list a few things I found troubling about Ms Cohen's article, and the spin most of the nation media put on what is happening.
First, Ms. Cohen mentioned Korea and Viet Nam and their thousandth days. While today is, in fact the thousandth day since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the actual thousandth day for the war was June 7, 2004: One thousdand days after the war began with terrorists flying three aircraft into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And when terrorists in a fourth aircraft were thwarted in reaching their target, whatever it was, by the brave actions of the passenges on that plane.
Second, as I indicated above, Operation Iraqi Freedom was not a separate war. Like Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, the Normandy invasion, the North Africa campaign, and other action in World War II, Iraqi Freedom was a campaign in the war on terror, begun by the terrorists on September 11, 2001.
Third, since major military action against Iraqi forces ended in May of 2003(even the major media agree that most insurgents aren't Iraqi), there never was or will be a thousandth day for the length of Iraqi Freedom. And the thousandth day for the current campaign against foreign insurgents won't come for another sixty days or so.
Fourth, it is undeniable that at this writing 2140 American soldiers have did in Iraq, but the attacks on 9/11 took the lives of close to three thousand people, mainly American civilians, in a matter of minutes.
Fifth, Ms. Cohen repeats the claim that no weapons of mass destruction were found. It is true that no massive stockpiles were found, but how does she classify one and a half metric tons of enhanced uranium, over fifteen hundred gallons of chemical weapons agents, chemical warheads with cyclosarin nerve agent, powdered radioactive materials that could be dispursed over population centers, and artillery projectiles loaded with binary chemical agents? What more does she want? And as far as that goes, I think the terrorists proved fairly conclusively that fully fueled jetliners make very effective weapons of mass destruction when they are flown into buildings.
A final question is that, before we talk about coming up with an exit strategy fro Iraq, shouldn't we try to come up with one for Korea, which Ms. Cohen mentioned in her article? After all, there has never been a peace deal signed, just a truce. Action in Korea ended over fifty years ago, so shouldn't we come up with an exit strategy from there?
In conclusion, I do agree with one part of what Ms. Cohen and her fellow mainstream journalists think, I want our troops home as quickly as possible. But what I don't agree with is that we need to bring them home immediately, before the mission is finished. To do that would not only increase the threat of attacks in this country (where would you rather they happen, in Iraq? Or in your own back yard?), but would also mean that all those who have died will have done so in vain.
First, Ms. Cohen mentioned Korea and Viet Nam and their thousandth days. While today is, in fact the thousandth day since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the actual thousandth day for the war was June 7, 2004: One thousdand days after the war began with terrorists flying three aircraft into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And when terrorists in a fourth aircraft were thwarted in reaching their target, whatever it was, by the brave actions of the passenges on that plane.
Second, as I indicated above, Operation Iraqi Freedom was not a separate war. Like Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, the Normandy invasion, the North Africa campaign, and other action in World War II, Iraqi Freedom was a campaign in the war on terror, begun by the terrorists on September 11, 2001.
Third, since major military action against Iraqi forces ended in May of 2003(even the major media agree that most insurgents aren't Iraqi), there never was or will be a thousandth day for the length of Iraqi Freedom. And the thousandth day for the current campaign against foreign insurgents won't come for another sixty days or so.
Fourth, it is undeniable that at this writing 2140 American soldiers have did in Iraq, but the attacks on 9/11 took the lives of close to three thousand people, mainly American civilians, in a matter of minutes.
Fifth, Ms. Cohen repeats the claim that no weapons of mass destruction were found. It is true that no massive stockpiles were found, but how does she classify one and a half metric tons of enhanced uranium, over fifteen hundred gallons of chemical weapons agents, chemical warheads with cyclosarin nerve agent, powdered radioactive materials that could be dispursed over population centers, and artillery projectiles loaded with binary chemical agents? What more does she want? And as far as that goes, I think the terrorists proved fairly conclusively that fully fueled jetliners make very effective weapons of mass destruction when they are flown into buildings.
A final question is that, before we talk about coming up with an exit strategy fro Iraq, shouldn't we try to come up with one for Korea, which Ms. Cohen mentioned in her article? After all, there has never been a peace deal signed, just a truce. Action in Korea ended over fifty years ago, so shouldn't we come up with an exit strategy from there?
In conclusion, I do agree with one part of what Ms. Cohen and her fellow mainstream journalists think, I want our troops home as quickly as possible. But what I don't agree with is that we need to bring them home immediately, before the mission is finished. To do that would not only increase the threat of attacks in this country (where would you rather they happen, in Iraq? Or in your own back yard?), but would also mean that all those who have died will have done so in vain.
# posted by Transplanted Yankee @ 12/12/2005 04:19:00 PM 
