Dobbs: Patience favors the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan

[sabra]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/12/dobbs.Sept13/

Dobbs: Patience favors the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan
By Lou Dobbs

NEW YORK (CNN) -- While American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are fighting some of the most intense battles of the war against radical Islamic terrorists, our national debate on the future of the conflict has descended to platitudes of campaign rhetoric and a pathological, partisan refusal on both sides of that debate to acknowledge the harsh realities and difficult choices that confront us.

Five years after the September 11 attacks, President Bush told the nation in his televised address, "If we do not defeat these enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons." Whether right or wrong, President Bush did not tell us how we will defeat these unspecified and unnamed enemies, nor when.

...

Neither the Bush administration nor the loyal Democratic opposition is speaking to the American people about how these wars will be won and at what cost. After almost five years in Afghanistan and more than three years in Iraq, I believe the American people, and certainly our men and women in uniform, deserve more than partisan rancor and false choices.

...

I, for one, do not want to hear another of our generals urge the American people to be patient. Patience favors the enemy. And our generals have the responsibility to our brave troops and this nation to deliver certain victory, and that responsibility rests first and foremost with the commander in chief.

[ixion]

1. time is always on the side of the populace being occupied

this is precisely why guerrilla wars are bad for the occupier.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Dear Lou,

patience is a virtue that you and your ilk lack... instant gratification is only for the moment.

[Solly Mack]

3. What does "certain victory" mean?

I'm sick of people talking about Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of "victory"...as if a "victory" would somehow justify the methods used by the Bush Regime.

An America waiting on a victory (whatever that means) so they can feel better about all the death and destruction caused by the lies of a corrupt executive is a very sick America. It's an America that doesn't want to deal with the crimes of the Bush Regime, but instead is seeking a way to rationalize away the crimes.(we won! so we're right! we're still great!)

There is no good service done to the troops by pretending that victory could be had if government would just come up with a plan. The troops shouldn't be in Iraq or Afghanistan. They never should have...

America illegally invaded one country for lies and invaded another country for a criminal act..not an act of war...a criminal act.

America has been committing crimes against humanity in the name of national security from the very beginning.

Nothing...absolutely nothing...is going to change that.