Redstate

For those of us that can respect a person who takes on a challenge no one else wants, that many believed (and even hoped) would end in failure, and calmly walk into a war zone, without fanfare, lead his men and women to execute the goals set out in his strategy earning their's and our unqualified respect, doesn't need Time magazine's bogus "Person of the Year". May I also add, as an American, I will never forget the disgraceful treament General Petraeus received by the likes of Kennedy and Clinton who seem to think leaders are people who fill sound bytes. They should know that leaders are people who have won the respect of those who serve under them, something Kennedy, Clinton, and those like them, can only dream of. To General Petraeus and all who have served under him, and those who have made the supreme sacrifice: YOU ARE OUR PERSONS OF THE YEAR!!!!

Bourbeau,I'm with you word for word.

Amen, Amen, Amen.

Atta-boys are due to Pej and Bourbeau.

Who the heck is Time magazine? Whatever their lofty accomplishments in previous generations might have been, in my generation they've been nothing but another second-rate lefty mouthpiece.

Stare decisis is fo' suckas -- Feddie

Let's all bow down to the GREAT General Patraeus!

So the surge worked! GREAT!

So Iraq now has a unified coalition government that can govern Iraq, without outside influence and interference, without each side killing each other! The Iraqi army can now defend their own country, the Iraqi Police can protect their own? That was the purpose sold to Americans, for this great surge. The surge was NOT sold as a way to reduce (mind you, it hasn't stopped) sectarian violence, reduce the killing of our young men and women soldiers....

I was out of town for a few days, guess I must have missed the notice that all is now peaceful and wonderful in Iraq.

So I guess the occupation is now over, and our brave soldiers are coming home, right?

I guess if any of you went in for surgery, and after the surgery the doctor told you "well, you ARE still bleeding all over the place, but you're bleeding a lot LESS then you were, and by the way, no, you can't go home just yet, we don't really know when you'll be able to go home, maybe in 5, 10 years"... you'd put HIM up for a metal as well, huh???

Bush keeps moving the goal posts, and right wingers keep saying what a great job he's doing, he keeps on scoring!

Thanks to Shel for his candid assessment of the Iraq situation. Having said that, let me remind him we know only too well of the complexity of the Iraq situation, and the difficulties that lie ahead for them to succeed as a country. What General Petraeus and his men and women have done is given them the Iraqui people a chance to follow through and succeed, when no one gave him a prayers chance in hell of succeeding. Liberals will always take the easy way out, and dredge up every negative influence to denigrate any effort that redirects resources away from their socialist driven special interests (case in point, your leader's agenda in Congress). Just so we're clear, there's no one amongst the candidates today that will vacate Iraq or Afghanistan; they will be this era's Europe and South Korea - our troops will be there permanently for years to come. So suck it up Shel; save the lectures for the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post. Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is here for the longterm. We understand the difficulty, the complexity and the sacrifice our men and women are making for us, to keep that element off shores. We can't and we won't forget that.

Brian
I don't mean to attack General Petraeus, I truly feel he was used by the Bush Administration, although, he did allow himself to be used.

Please... read what this administration was saying BEFORE we entered this war... it's easy to do a search with the internet, and see what was being said.

We were told the war would take "six days, six weeks... I don't think six months"....

We were told it would be paid for by Iraqi oil, and at most, cost $50 billion. When someone in the administration suggested it might go as high as $500 billion, they were fired!

People who suggested the war was for oil were mocked... a couple of years later, Bush says "we can't allow the terrorists (who, by the way, weren't IN Iraqi before we invaded) to be allowed to gain control of the oil.

The winners of this war are the Military Industrial Complexes, Haliburton, Blackwater, (oh, and one other BIG winner, IRAN!)... these guys are ALL getting rich and fat on our tax dollars, with no bid contracts, getting paid even when the work isn't completed...doesn't any of this bother any of you??? God forbid we give the poor something, but hey, the Bush admin LOSES BILLIONS OF DOLLARS?? Oh well, things happen!

When the Bush Administration lies, it doesn't lie only to liberals, or democrats, or people on the left, and the tax dollars and lives wasted on this travesty also don't come from one political side... we are ALL losing!

Anyway, I really do not want or mean to attack anyone, and I do wish all on this board a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year, God Bless America!

Yeah, I'm a loon...

I read about our country surviving and winning two world wars, and surviving and standing up to the Soviets with nuclear missles aimed at us, and STILL protecting the Constitution, which, if I remember correctly, is what Bush and EVERY member of congress promises to defend against attack, both foreign AND domestic.

But because of 9/11, and a handful of crackpots (mostly from Saudi Arabia, I might remind you, NONE from Iraq), we should give up our freedoms, and allow this admin to walk all over the Constitution, no more Habeaus Corpus, wiretap our phones, read our e-mails, because what? 9/11 was somehow a greater threat to our freedom and lives then WW1 and WW2, greater then the Cuban Missile Crisis???

Sorry, the right wing have become a bunch of cowards who need to hide behind Bush and Cheny's skirts, and will allow them to do and say ANYTHING, as long as they promise to protect all of us.

Yeah, this loon ain't buying it...

And don't for a minute talk about who is and who is NOT patriotic. Don't defend those destroying our countries good name, destroying our civil liberties and the document our country was based on, the Constitution, and then call people on the left "Un American"....

This country used to be a country based on laws, not men. No man was supposed to be above the law.

It is becoming a country based on ideology, not law. Even the laws of science are under attack.

No, this "Loon" isn't hiding behind the skirts of Bush and Cheney, and I'm not ready to give up all of my freedoms and rights for their promise of protection!

TIME magazine is still relevant? Come on people.

I don't understand why we're all so prudish about this fact of our national existence. We are dependent on oil, which mostly sits under the nuthouse districts of the world, notably the Mid-East.

This has nothing to do with the oIl companies or Haliburton and the other incubi of the infantile left's imagination; we need the stuff. And must do what we must do to get it.

Why we sat on our butts for 30 years and couldn't or wouldn't develop our own supplies is a real puzzle to me, but we didn't. Meanwhile under the late Saddan, Iraq had obligingly made itself such an intolerable pain that it was the natural candidate for a Plan B.

To put an end to being a hostage to every tyrant and loon with an oil well, we decided to acquire our own, and a pretty big one at that. A take over? Sure. But a friendly take over. In return for the oil, we gave the Iraqi people their country back. Time will tell whether they have the wisdom to use this chance to build the only sane oil producing country in the world.

Cynical? Self-interest lurking under the good deeds? Sure. (gasp! horrors! ) So was the Marshall Plan.

The dirty truth here is that this mission must succeed, which does not in any way lesson my total admiration for our armed forces and General P. In fact it raises it even higher.

We're the largest industrialized nation on earth; we prosper, everyone else prospers - go ask China and India. We depend on oil (12 million barrels a day); if you have a problem with that, call you Senators and Representatives and tell them to ban SUVs, buses, private planes, and luxury yachts and I mean the ones they own and use. Yes, we're dependent on oil but that's because of the envrionmental loons and the idiots we vote into office have prevented us from implementing an aggressive energy policy in 35 years to give us some source of independence. Our oil production/refining infracture is on band aides with nothing in the horizon to upgrade it. And yes we went into Iraq to protect their oil infrastructure from falling into the hands of terrorists - seem's pretty damn coherent strategy to me. If you think that's a lame excues, be here if the Saudi's or their neighbors get unravelled by the likes of the Iranians and tell me you won't be screaming for the US to intervene - remember Gulf War I? The trouble with liberal are they spend too much time refining their talking points to denigrate anything the US does. You can never trust a liberal; it's beyond lunacy any more.

There is always next year and, if his success continues, the General might have more honors than Time magazine can give.

Wally Lind