THE U.S. MUST NOT ABANDON IRAQ

Najim Al Jibouri, mayor of Tal Afar, Iraq, visited Fort Carson, Colorado Friday to thank the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR) for saving his city from "certain ruin". 3rd ACR last year rid the city of Tal Afar from insurgents. (HERE is the official letter from the Iraqi mayor thanking the troops)

The Rocky Mountain News reports:

COLORADO SPRINGS - An Iraqi mayor stood before troops lined up on the lawn at Fort Carson on Friday morning and said only two words in English.

But those two words brought the crowd to its feet.

"Thank you."

It was a telling gesture from Mayor who spoke for about 20 minutes in his native tongue praising the 3rd Armored Cavalry in his native tongue praising the 3rd Armored Cavalry for saving his city from certain ruin.

"Are you truly my friends?" he asked through a translator. "Yes. I walk a happier man because you are my friends. You are the world to me. I smell the sweet perfume that emanates from your flower of your strength, honor and greatness in every corner of Tal Afar. The nightmares of terror fled when the lion of your bravery entered our city."

Mayor Al Jibouri also said:

"I am not exaggerating, but birds did not fly in Tal Afar because of the violence and shooting. Kids are back in school, government services are operating and Tal Afar is much more secure today than many other places in Iraq. The U.S. soldier is not just sacrificing himself for Iraqi citizens, but all terrorists organizations in the world have come to Iraq to fight the U.S. That means the war does not reach all the way to this country. America should not forget Sept. 11. ”

"The nightmare of terror fled when the lions of your bravery entered the city."

"We cannot show you all the affection we have for Americans. Anyone who shows support for the U.S. is afraid of being decapitated. But the children are not afraid. They cannot lie."

Watch the Video See the progress in Tal Afar

3rd ACR COL H.R. McMaster offered a glimpse into the comradery between Iraqi and American troops that the MSM overlooks when he said:

"We will never forget our Iraqi brothers who we fought and bled with."

The Iraqi mayor also said he believes US troops might need to stay for another two to three years in Iraq because "there is still a lot of work to do."

He is not the only one who believes this. The Iraqi Army’s 1st Brigade, 2nd Battalion commander COL Mohammed Faiq, a Sunni , known for his aggressive pursuit of insurgents in his area said this after the 2005 Constitutional elections in Iraq:

If the coalition forces left Iraq, that would be the end of Iraq. You could forget about the country called Iraq. There would be massacres in the street. No one would be able to open the door of their houses and go outside because people will kill each other. Sunnis will kill Shi’ites and Shi’ites will kill Sunnis. The Muslim will kill the Christian, and the Christian will kill the Muslim. It is very, very important that the coalition forces stay in Iraq.

In the meantime, 640 Fort Carson 3rd ACR troops re-enlisted in a massive show of support for the mission in Iraq just after their return home.

Some of the soldiers said:

-“I love my job. I love the Army life.” SPC Aaron Ziegler.

-"I defend people who can’t defend themselves. If I’m called to go back, that’s what I’m going to do, no questions asked." Sgt. Anthony Feaster

-"This is a brotherhood. A lot of these guys have been to combat twice, and they’re so seasoned they could go back again and it wouldn’t matter. They do it for the pride." Spc. David Williamson

-"There’s good and bad in everything you do in life. "For me there was more good than bad, we did so much for the people in Iraq." Specialist Aaron Ziegler.

-"It’s well worth it, the United States is definitely the strongest cause of good in the world." Specialist John Clark

Iraq doesn’t want the US to leave. The troops don’t want the US to leave. Democrats, on the other hand…..

HOWARD DEAN: “The idea that we’re going to win this war is an idea that is unfortunately wrong.”

JOHN MURTHA: "My plan calls: To immediately redeploy U.S. troops consistent with the safety of U.S. forces. Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the U.S. can not accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME."

"Let me tell you, there’s only two plans. One plan is the president’s plan. And that’s stay the course and hope. And there’s a plan that I’m proposing which calls for immediate redeployment."

JOHN KERRY: "Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to deal with these intransigent issues and at last put together an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military."

“Americans have a right and an obligation to criticize the Bush administration for the way it is handling the Iraq occupation.
This war is being carried out by incompetents and ideologues whose actions are killing American troops.”

TED KENNEDY: "Iraqis are using the U.S. military as a crutch and we need a substantial troop withdrawal. It’s time for them (Iraqis) to do it."

"The military has done its job. It’s time for American troops to come home."

"The people that are cutting and running are the administration, when it comes to truth about Iraq and their policies in Iraq."

NANCY PELOSI: “The withdrawal ought to start now, right after the elections (of Dec. 15, 2005)”

“It’s time for the Iraqi people to take responsibility for their government and for their security. I would withdraw them (the troops).”

With friends like these………Contrast this cut and run, doom and gloom defeatist rhetoric with what President Bush said on April 27, 2006 (watch the video)

President Bush:

“I believe we’re going to win in Iraq. And a victory in Iraq would be a major blow to the totalitarian vision of Bin Laden and his lieutenants. A major blow. One: it’ll be a tactical blow. It’ll deny them that which they want. But secondly, it’ll be a major blow because in the long term the best way to defeat an ideology of hatred is with an ideology of hope.

I base a lot of my foreign policy decisions on some things I think are true. One, I believe there is an Almighty and secondly I believe that one of the great gifts of the Almighty is a desire in everybody’s soul regardless of what you look like or where you live to be free. I believe liberty is universal. I believe people want to be free, and I that know democracies do not war with each other, and I know that the best way to defeat the enemy and their ability to exploit hopelessness and despair, is to give people a chance to live in a free society.

The Iraqis went to the polls last December for the 3^rd time in one year. Twelve million people defied terrorists, threats, and said ‘We want to be free. We’re sick and tired of a society that had been suppressed by a brutal tyrant. We want to go to the polls. We want to be self-governing..’ I wasn’t surprised; I was pleased, but not surprised. If you believe that liberty exists in the soul of each person on the face of the earth it shouldn’t surprise you that given the chance, people will say, ‘We want to be free.’

And now the role of the United States is to stand by the courageous Iraqis as their democracy develops. It’s not easy work, by the way, to go from tyranny to democracy. We had a rough go ourselves, if you look back at our history. My Secretary of State’s relatives were enslaved in the United States even though we had a constitution that said all were free; that believed in the dignity of all. The Articles of the Confederation wasn’t exactly a real smooth start for our government to begin. What you’re watching on your TV screens is a new democracy emerging.

What a difference perspective makes. Democrats continue to live in a vile world of self-centered politics at the expense of an entire nation (both the US and Iraq). While pretending to be the party of compassion, they show themselves through both word and deed to be the party of intolerance, isolationism and amoralism. They remain empty and ugly, devoid of empathy for anything but their own political careers.

Iraqi government officials and civilians express both gratitude and a desire to see the United States stay in Iraq until they are fully self-sufficient. US troops express a desire to return to Iraq and finish the job because with boots on the ground, they see the tremendous progress in only 3 years. Iraq has gone from an oppressed people living in fear of a mad Saddam Hussein to a new nation of self-government and freedom. Democrats continually share talking points with Osama Bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and other terrorists AGAINST the United States and the brave people of Iraq.

Mayor Najim Al Jibouri gets it. President Bush gets it. The US troops get it. Democrats and liberals, as usual, don’t want to get it.

WHEN HARRY MET NANCY OR HOW I AM MINORITY LEADER BUT WILL LOSE MY NEXT ELECTION

That’s the title of Sherman Frederick’s column. Mr. Frederick is predicting that Harry won’t win his next election in Nevada. Here’s his reasoning:

In 50-plus months, Nevada voters will march to the polls and replace Sen. Harry Reid, thus ending one of the longer, more powerful political runs in state history. When it happens, political wiseguys will remember that Sen. Reid’s undoing came early in his last term when he became a big shot in the Democratic Party and quickly morphed into someone Nevada voters did not recognize, his political girlfriend in the House, uber-liberal Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.

This is the same malady that afflicted Tom Daschle. With the rise of the alternative media, politicians can’t get away with speaking with a forked tongue anymore. John Thune exploited that in his winning campaign against Daschle. I’d suspect that whoever challenges Reid in 2010 will use the same tactic against Reid.

I have hiked the desert with “blue jeans” Harry and listened to him passionately expound the virtues of mining, advocate appropriate wilderness areas and unashamedly defend the absolute need for putting federally held land in and around Las Vegas into private hands.
I like that politically incorrect guy.
Then, I see some other fella on C-SPAN and “Meet the Press.” This other guy walks and talks like a lily-livered coward on terrorism, a crass political player on Social Security, a mute on abortion and family issues and Ted Kennedy on taxation. I don’t like that guy. And, I believe, most Nevadans are with me on that.
Nevadans who see Sen. Reid exercise his position as the Democratic leader of the Senate don’t see the hardscrabble conservative Mormon from Searchlight. They see a political transvestite who forsakes his home state to kowtow to the wildly liberal wing of the Democratic Party. When Harry meets Nancy on the national stage, they seem indistinguishable. Not because she’s him, but because him’s she.

This behavior won’t get noticed in California but this won’t play well in the red state of Nevada.

AMNESTY FOR ALL

By Michelle Malkin

I don't know how many times I've pointed out that amnesty for illegal aliens = amnesty for their employers. The Washington Times spells it out today in "Senate bill protects employers of illegal aliens from penalties"--and the Orwellian open-borders double-speakers huff and buff and try to bluff:

Among those who will be cleared of past crimes under the Senate's proposed immigration-reform bill would be the businesses that have employed the estimated 10 million illegal aliens eligible for citizenship and that provided the very "magnet" that drew them here in the first place.

Buried in the more than 600 pages of legislation is a section titled "Employer Protections," which states: "Employers of aliens applying for adjustment of status under this section shall not be subject to civil and criminal tax liability relating directly to the employment of such alien."

Supporters of the legislation insist that such provisions do not amount to "amnesty."

"The legislation we are considering today is not amnesty," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter said last week. "That is a pejorative term, really a smear term used to denigrate the efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. This is not amnesty because amnesty means a pardon of those who have broken the law."

Mr. Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, and others argue that the bill is not amnesty for illegal aliens because they will have to pay $2,000 in fines before they gain citizenship.

The law does not, however, provide for such fines against employers who have broken the law by hiring the illegals.

It is left to Sen. Robert Byrd--yes, Bobby Byrd--to talk straight:

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, vehemently opposes "this effort to waive the rules for lawbreakers and to legalize the unlawful actions of undocumented workers and the businesses that illegally employ them."

Amnesties, he said, "are the dark underbelly of our immigration process."

How stupid of the Republican elite to put themselves on the opposite side and give the likes of Byrd such an opening. Message to Arlen Specter: What part of amnesty don't you understand?

One GOP Senator with his head screwed on straight is Jeff Sessions. Can we have 100 of him, please?

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Related:

David Orland observes: Amnesty, alas, is the least of it.

Allah tracks Vicente Fox's U.S. victory tour.