"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

FRANKS: Kerry's GWOT strategy is no way to make love - or war

General Tommy Franks wrote - and The NYTimes has published - a GREAT op-ed piece. Franks is again fighting the "enemy" on two fronts:

(1) he's NOT preaching to the choir when he writes in the Times; he's attempting to "deprogram" their readership - the "hip degenrati" and Left-wing "pomo" moral relativists who think the GWOT will go away if we stop retaliating; and (2) he TOTALLY takes on Kerry.
Here's the gist - (so you don't have to patronize the NYTimes website):

"President Bush and Senator John Kerry have very different views of the war on terrorism, and those differences ought to be debated in this presidential campaign. But the debate should focus on facts, not distortions of history.
[...]
According to Mr. Kerry, we "outsourced" the job [of getting OBL] to Afghan warlords. As commander of the allied forces in the Middle East, I was responsible for the operation at Tora Bora, and I can tell you that the senator's understanding of events doesn't square with reality.
[...]
... we did not "outsource" military action.
[...]
Contrary to Senator Kerry, President Bush never "took his eye off the ball" when it came to Osama bin Laden. The war on terrorism has a global focus. It cannot be divided into separate and unrelated wars, one in Afghanistan and another in Iraq. Both are part of the same effort to capture and kill terrorists before they are able to strike America again, potentially with weapons of mass destruction. [...]
Neither attention nor manpower was diverted from Afghanistan to Iraq. When we started Operation Iraqi Freedom we had about 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, and by the time we finished major combat operations in Iraq last May we had more than 10,000 troops in Afghanistan.
[...]
Many hurdles remain, of course. But the gravest danger would result from the withdrawal of American troops before we finish our work. Today we are asking our servicemen and women to do more, in more places, than we have in decades. They deserve honest, consistent, no-spin leadership that respects them, their families and their sacrifices. The war against terrorism is the right war at the right time for the right reasons [ my emphasis - reliapundit]. And Iraq is one of the places that war must be fought and won. George W. Bush has his eye on that ball and Senator John Kerry does not. "

The General has said it all. Kerry is a dishonest distorter, and inconsistent, and he would likely withdraw prematurely. That's no way to make love - or war.

Seriously: see another one of my posts to find out why Kerry is LIKELY to abandon Iraq.


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