For the entire 8 years of the Bush administration, all we heard was how inept he was, how bad the economy was and how he took us into an unnecessary and illegal war.
The country believed the rhetoric and in 2006, rewarded those who cried out for a “New Direction” by sweeping Democrats into Congressional Power.
In 2008, further Democrat rhetoric swept the current administration into the White House on the promise of “Change you can believe in.” So many Americans felt their prayers were answered and everything was now as it should be.
Six months into this “Change we can believe in,” we are trillions of dollars deeper in debt, unemployment is skyrocketing and all we hear are promises of more the same to come.
The relentless assault on President Bush lessened for a while after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and Democrats agreed overwhelmingly to take the fight back to the terrorists in Afghanistan and also in Iraq in 2003.
By 2004, with the candidacy of John ‘F’in Kerry on his tired old anti-war theme, that support faded and stronger rhetoric than ever returned to the political field. Kerry lost to President Bush, but the rhetoric remained and even grew.
The 2006 congressional campaign saw Nancy Pelosi’s call for ‘A New Direction’ that included the promise of, “REAL SECURITY - AT HOME AND OVERSEAS.”
Speaker Pelosi’s pamphlet says under that title,
“Reclaim American leadership with a tough, smart plan to transform failed Bush Administration policies in Iraq, the Middle East and around the world. Require the Iraqis to take responsibility for their country and begin the phased redeployment of U.S. forces from Iraq in 2006. Double the size of Special Forces to destroy Osama Bin Laden and terrorist networks like al Qaeda. Rebuild a state-of-the-art military capable of projecting power wherever necessary. Implement the bipartisan 9/11 Commission proposal to secure America’s borders and ports and screen 100% of containers. Fully man, train, and equip our National Guard and our police, firefighters and other first responders. Honor our commitments to our veterans.”
Obama campaigned on promises of, “removing our troops from Iraq immediately, shutting down Guantánamo, rebuilding the Military for 21st century tasks and fully equipping the Troops for the missions they face,” among several other promises.
Once in power, reality set in and the immediate removal of Troops from Iraq grew into a 19-month gradual withdrawal that may even go longer.
Orders to close Guantánamo within a year left the new administration pondering just what to do with the internees and the eventual retention of Bush policies of holding certain one indefinitely.
Rebuilding and reequipping the Troops became propositions of Defense budget cuts and cancellations of Defense weapons contracts.
During President Bush’s last term, anti-war rhetoric grew with the likes of Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin’s Code Pink staging protests and blockage of Recruitment Office’s, with many Democrats agreeing and letting young people who thought about enlisting in one of the Armed Services what fools they would be.
Our Troops were called “cold-blooded murderers,” compared to Nazi’s and Soviet Gulags and told if they didn’t study hard to stay in college, they would end up in Iraq, insinuating again how dumb they would be if they enlisted in the Military.
Threats of defunding our Troops in the field were a constant drone, as Democrats demanded firm withdrawal dates they never received under George W. Bush.
The constant drone of ineptness overshadowed all of this and more and anti-war fervor whipped up Democrats and they took complete dictatorial control of the country in the 2008 elections.
Only now, they are in the driver’s seat and fumbling along trying to figure out what to do.
Even though plunging the country into a debt higher than in all of our history and gradually withdrawing Troops from Iraq, a build-up and more intense fighting is in store for Afghanistan. It now seems that their calls years ago for increased NATO involvement in Afghanistan proved to be less than desirable as Taliban forces strengthened their numbers and again threaten to retake the country.
After years of undermining efforts to fight terrorists, now they must lead the fight.
Repeating much of the failed leadership observed during the Viet Nam War by Democrat Lyndon Johnson and his administration, our troops have been given ridiculous Rules of engagement that if they are fired upon from a home where civilians “might” still be, they are not to return fire but to withdraw.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal says,
“if there is a compound they’re taking fire from and they can remove themselves from the area safely, without any undue danger to the forces, then that’s the option they should take, because in these compounds we know there are often civilians kept captive by the Taliban.”
Great, broadcast to our enemies where they may safely hold up and kill our Troops from while tying the hands of the Troops at the same time.
We see VP Biden now telling Iraqi leaders that “if Iraq fell into a period of sectarian violence or engaged in ethnic fighting, such a step would change the nature of U.S. engagement,” insinuating a sped up withdrawal and abandonment, as Democrats forced on to South Viet Nam in the early 1970’s, again invalidating the sacrifices of many American Troops.
Just this weekend, we saw Defense Secretary Robert Gates come out saying,
“After the Iraq (war) experience, nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway. The troops are tired. The American people are pretty tired.”
Did Secretary Gates forget he has been over seeing that theater of the War on Terror for over two years now?
Now, after many years of relentless pounding into the American youth’s heads that they were foolish to enlist in the Military and years of Democrats playing down President Bush’s warnings of an ongoing terrorist threat, Secretary Gates is now ordering the US Army to add 22,000 Troops.
Amazingly, Gates also says he
“will not seek additional money for the extra troops in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal year budgets.”
We still await Speaker Pelosi’s 2006 promise of “Double the size of our Special Forces, increase our human intelligence capabilities, and ensure our intelligence is free from political pressure,” while at the same time she is accusing the CIA of regularly lying to congress as she tries to distance herself from complicity in the enhanced interrogation techniques she once approved of.
We wait for Obama to untie the hands of our Troops and let them fight as they were trained to end this war they do not wish to see drug out.
We wait to see them actually receive the tools they need to win this fight instead of squandering funds bailing out failing businesses and funding illegal aliens entitlements programs.
We wait to see them counter the anti-war rhetoric they whipped up when Bush was president.
We wait for this “change we can believe in,” seeing that the promised “New Direction” is nothing more than a bankrupt nation and socialism under inept leadership.
We wait for the next election in hopes the nation wakes up and returns some strength and sanity to our leadership.
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