See article in three posts on this thread and Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 99048 (Choices also given after each of three article section posts).
U.S. can't 'redeploy' its way out of Iraq
The biggest kid on the block has responsibilities:
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. - Paul (Romans 13:3-4 KJV)
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From a Chicago Sun Times Mark Steyn column, U.S. can't 'redeploy' its way out of Iraq:
U.S. can't 'redeploy' its way out of Iraq [/] June 25, 2006 [/] BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
[...]
If you were a 5-year-old boy standing in the London streets in 1897 for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee parade and marveling as the hussars and lancers of the mightiest empire the world had ever known passed before your eyes, it would have seemed inconceivable that you'd be celebrating your 80th birthday in a decrepit ramshackle broken-down strike-bound basket case of a state. Permanence is the illusion of every age. And, if you're interested in a "dignified retirement," you might want to give some thought to the shape of the world the day after tomorrow.
Today, lots of experts crank out analyses positing China as the unstoppable hegemon of the 21st century. But the real threat is not the strengths of your enemies but their weaknesses. China is a weak power: Its population will get old before it gets rich. Russia is a weak power: If Africa has health crises, the Middle East has Islamists and North Korea has nukes, then Russia's got the lot: a dying population whose men have a lower life expectancy than Bangladeshis with a Muslim separatist movement sitting on top of the biggest pile of nukes on the planet. Europe is a weak power, remorselessly evolving month by month into Eurabia.
Islam is a weak power: In the words of Dr. Mahathir Mohammed, the former prime minister of Malaysia, one of the least worst Muslim nations in the world, "We produce practically nothing on our own, we can do almost nothing for ourselves, we cannot even manage our wealth." But in Iran they're working full-speed on nukes that will be able to hit every European city.
North Korea is a weak power: Its population is starving but it's about to "test" the latest variation on its aptly named No Dong missile. I mean "test" in the sense that I test my new shotgun by firing it through your kitchen window. They're going to launch it and see where it comes down -- maybe Tokyo, maybe San Diego; maybe they'll aim for Los Angeles but it'll fall in Vancouver. Hey, that's why we call it a "test," right?
The danger we face is not a Chinese superpower or an Islamist superpower: If it's a new boss, you learn the new rules and adjust as best you can. But the greater likelihood is of a world with no superpower at all in which unipolar geopolitics gives way to nonpolar geopolitics, a world without order in which pipsqueak thug states that can't feed their own people globalize their pathologies. There would be more stories like that one the other day about the three decapitated policemen whose heads were found in the Tijuana River. But Pelosi would carry on talking about college tuition as the world sinks into economic decline, arbitrary bombings and kidnappings, and the occasional nuking.
Kerry gets all huffy if he thinks you're questioning his patriotism, so let's be charitable and assume the Defeaticrats are simply missing the point: For the rest of the world, what's at issue in the Iraq war is not the future of Iraq but the future of America. Can the world's leading nation still lead or is Kerry's Vietnam Syndrome "seared" (as he'd say) into its bones? Luxembourg can be Luxembourg. America doesn't have that option. In a nonpolar world, there's nowhere to redeploy to. [/] (c)Mark Steyn 2006 [My ellipses and emphasis]
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Poll Question: "Redeploy" U.S. Forces Now In Iraq? | Poll choices:
1. Yes. Only rabid right wing attack dogs think otherwise. [/] 2. Yes. Iraq for the Iraqis. [/] 3. Yes. Our soldiers have suffered enough. [/] 4. Yes. The Iraqis have suffered enough. [/] 5. Yes. Our international reputation has suffered enough. [/] 6. Yes. More oppression will only drive the victims to greater atrocities. [/] 7. Yes. Americans have the real needs for more government help. [/] 8. Yes, Let niceness reign in both foreign and domestic policies. [/] 9. Yes. [/] 10. Possibly. Should be investigated. [/] 11. Possibly. But bigger government more important. [/] 12. No. But stop attacking those made psychotic by oppression. [/] 13. No. [/] 14. No. Support Iraq's elected government. [/] 15. No. Keep our promises and commitments. [/] 16. No. Support law and order directed toward real freedom. [/] 17. No. The biggest kid on the block has responsibilities. [/] 18. No. Use big stick on world's thugs whenever needed. [/] 19. No comment. [/] 20. No opinion. [/] 21. This poll is worthless. [/] 22. This poll is of negative value. [/] 23. Other.
Vote at Adult Christian Forum Thread 99048
