Common Folk Using Common Sense

Trackposted to Stuck On Stupid, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, and basil’s blog, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Hat tip to the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler and Hugh Hewett:

More than 16,000 (as of 01/26/07) people have signed The Pledge thus far. Will you?

If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution.

Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.

Do I believe that The Surge will solve all problems in Iraq? Hell no. But to turn tail and run away, to engage in a “phased re-deployment” would leave a weak Iraq police and military in the hands of well-armed vicious “insurgents” that would re-establish a tyranny. It would also make the US the laughingstock of the Middle East, nothing more than a Paper Tiger. It would also make every US injury and death in this conflict in vain.

No, we must finish the job we started. A living, breathing democracy in the Middle East could change the entire landscape of a region steeped in violence and poverty. A fair election, an education, a secure job, a bright future is far more powerful a weapon against Islamic terrorism that our biggest bomb. With that idea we must establish and protect fair elections, education, secure jobs, and bright futures for Iraqi civilians.

That protection can only be done with the might of the US forces. To walk away, to leave the struggling Iraqi police and military in their infancy would be a kiss of death for everything we’ve accomplished this far. We shouldn’t come home until our job is finished, and anyone that selfishly demands our troops return before then is telling the fledgling Iraqi democracy, “You’re on your own against overwhelming odds … you’ll probably be dead in six months … good luck!”

Says Hewett:

Republicans like their elected men to act like Reagan and their elected women to act like Thatcher: Principled, firm, sunny and full of resolve. “We win. They lose,” was Reagan’s prescription for the Soviets, and it ought to be the GOP’s prescription for Iraq and the far greater war beyond. That is the clear message of the rightroots, and it isn’t hard to hear, even for senators wearing Beltway earmuffs.

Tell this to your elected representatives. Demand it. This is the only real way to support our troops. Sign this petition. I have.

Senate, Iraq, Petraeus, Republican, NRSC

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