Comment at end
23rd August, 2008
MICHAEL YON – A HERO TO MANY
You can purchase an autographed copy of his book by clicking the book cover above. (I am NOT affiliated in any way)
If you have never visited Michael Yon’s website, why not? He visits Iraq and Afghanistan and takes the most amazing pictures, including one which is recognised all around the world and features on the front cover of his book.
His records of his visits are comprehensive and well-researched and he pulls no punches. But he is a man who believes in the missions.
His site is frequented by knowledgeable people from around the world. You will learn a lot there if your mind is open to the possibility that America, Britain and their coalition allies are actually making a difference for the better in those war theatres.
I was particularly drawn to the comments of a soldier who has no truck with the approach of many towards Bush and Blair over the WMD business. Her name is ‘SFC Cheryl McElroy US ARMY (RET)’ and her comments are numbered 43, 44, 45, if you’d like to take a look. I’ll provide her comments following Michael Yon’s article, below here.
She provides plenty of links to disprove the antis’ arguments.
Michael Yon’s article follows
19 August 2008
Michael Yon
By now, no credible person denies the dramatic success that continues to manifest itself in Iraq. No doubt, there will be years of political dramas ahead for that country, and when they occur, we will blame ourselves for them, as is our habit. Americans have a tendency to blame ourselves nearly everything from wildfires to genocidal wars on the other side of the globe. And what we don’t blame ourselves for, others will. Some might see our ability to take initiative and shoulder responsibility as naiveté. I think it’s one of America’s greatest strengths.
Many people around the world see America in decline. As someone who travels a great deal, I see the opposite. America is just getting started. Yes, we face enormous challenges and dangerous enemies. But the soul of our country, the initiative of our people, and the depth of the collective intelligence are all far stronger than our critics, and even many Americans, imagine. Al Qaeda thought that America would fall to her knees after 9/11. They were wrong. Today we hunt them like jackals.
Of course, the Iraq war has led some to think that the United States has committed a tragic imperial overreach. Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant, a truth widely accepted by the international community. Yet the international community can do little about evil tyrants. They leave that up to us, complaining when we do nothing and criticizing when we take action.
However history finally judges him, President Bush will be remembered for two decisions. In 2003, he invaded Iraq. And in 2006, he did not surrender.
Whether or not the first decision was right seems difficult to answer definitively without falling back onto ideological bias, partisan politics, or wishful thinking. Reasonable people likely will disagree about that decision for as long as the event is remembered. If Iraq falls apart or again becomes a tyrant state, then Bush was a brash, imperialistic President invading a sovereign nation without cause, who made things worse and spent lots of money and lives in doing so. If Iraq becomes a stable and prosperous nation even vaguely similar to the United Arab Emirates or Qatar, then most fair-minded people likely will judge Mr. Bush as a little-understood visionary who paid a moderate price to dramatically improve an important region of the world.
But few reasonable people who have been paying attention can disagree that the second decision was correct. In January 2007, one prominent Senator predicted that the Surge would only deepen the sectarian conflict in Iraq. “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there: In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”
Now it’s difficult to tell exactly what Senator Obama thinks about the Surge, for each remark he makes on the subject seems to veer in a different direction without ever actually going anywhere.
Please remember all those politicians and journalists who insisted that splitting Iraq into three parts was the only way. Meanwhile, those of us who were actually in Iraq kept insisting that the idea of splitting Iraq was ridiculous. There is no substitute for being on the ground over a sustained period.
History will show that after five years and more than four thousand American lives, we have proved that we never planned to steal Iraq’s oil. To see a real war for oil, one need only look at what Russia is doing in Georgia. Vladimir Putin’s Russia is reminding the world how much it needs America.
Sure, we made mistakes in Iraq, and we will continue to make mistakes in the future—there, in Afghanistan, and anywhere we dare to venture. But if we didn’t try, the world would quickly turn to chaos and tyranny. The world is filled with extremely powerful weapons, and criminal-minded leaders who would use those weapons against any weaker nation who has something they want. America is the only country on Earth with power, will, and good intentions (at least, most of the time). That is why we are the indispensable nation.
Today, through perseverance, military courage, and increasingly smart strategy and politics, the Coalition has won the war in Iraq. Iraq has a chance to emerge from its bloody past. Having new BMWs and Mercedes bought with oil money does not make a country modern. Yet Iraq now has the chance to lead their people into the promise of a new life, and inspire their neighbors toward positive change.
What Iraq does now is largely up the Iraqis. They will have dramas, for which the world likely will blame the United States. But ultimately, the Iraqis now control their own future. This is what freedom means. It’s not easy, and nothing’s guaranteed. But at least the Iraqis have got a serious chance. If the Iraqis have the intelligence and will to seize the day, they will emerge as a powerful force in the Middle East with close ties to the West.
Looking back on the Iraq war, for all the attention the media paid, their reporting was anything but balanced. The outcome of the war was being negatively affected by irresponsible journalism, some of which was intentionally misleading. We truly could have lost the Iraq war due in large part to journalistic travesties. That we won the war despite the media demonstrates just how great our soldiers are. And let’s never forget the price that the British and others paid, like the Poles, and even the Georgians.
An unintended consequence of the Iraq war was that we ignored Afghanistan/Pakistan, where things only got worse. Now many are calling Af-Pak “The Good War,” but let’s see how long that lasts. Our NATO allies hide behind the sturdy legs of the United States and Great Britain, who do most of the real fighting in Afghanistan, just as they did in Iraq.
Now that media attention is turning back to the Af-Pak war, let’s hope that the sum of their reporting will be more informed and less biased than what came out of Iraq. If the Iraq model is followed again, the Western politicians will say whatever is expedient, bending to popular pressure created by the media, many of whom understand the bending of truth better than Einstein understood the bending of light.
Meanwhile, the press will meander around like a herd of buffalo, occasionally stampeding in unison off a cliff, and taking public perception with them to the jagged rocks below.
My recent month-long walk in the Himalayan Mountains served as a buffer between Iraq and Af-Pak. We won the Iraq war, and now it’s down to relatively sporadic violence and the arguments about what we should do with all of our troops and enormous amounts of gear still remaining. Little doubt, many of those troops will soon be in Afghanistan. But if there was not enough firsthand reporting from Iraq, there promises to be even less in Af-Pak. This front likely will not end as quickly, or as neatly, as Iraq. It could take decades. And we could still lose.
I have just left Nepal and landed in Bangkok, en route to Kabul. My plan is to spend some time in Afghanistan, head back over to Iraq in late September, then possibly return to Afghanistan before the year’s end. In any case, I plan to keep my boots in Iraq and Afghanistan through the U.S. elections.
The last time I headed to Afghanistan, I spent far more money than I earned. Folks just didn’t seem to care about that war. I am willing to stick it out, and have already proven that willingness in Iraq, but I simply will be unable to do so without generous reader support. These days support is scant. Folks seem to think I got rich off Moment of Truth in Iraq (I didn’t). There will probably be no independent journalists who spend more than a month or so in Af-Pak during any given year. Same with the mainstream reporters I know. This means there will be almost no firsthand reporting from the Af-Pak battlefields, and less than a trickle comes to today. If readers want me there, I’ll commit, but reader support is absolutely critical. I can’t do it without you, and your support is needed TODAY. I should be in Afghanistan later this week.
Please support this mission by buying Moment of Truth today, or by making a direct contribution. Without your support, the mission will end. Thank you for helping me tell the full story of the struggle for Iraq and Afghanistan.
SOLDIER’S COMMENTS ON WMDs
From most recent backwards, as listed on the site. There may be more updates when you click through.
to “i’m lovin it”
Saudi Arabia – 56.2 million barrels
Venezuela 20.2 million barrels
Nigeria 19.3 million barrels
Kuwait – 5.9 million barrels
Algeria – 1.2 million barrels
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aairaqioil.htm
If we did take over every rig in Iraq instead of putting it back into their economy and letting them export it, we’d be paying 4 cents instead of about 4 bucks (and in some states, even more) at the pump. Read and learn before you spew bullshit that isn’t true. All about the oil, my ass
We usually enter countries to break things and kill people as part of combat operations….and yeah, we’ve done a lot of liberating, too. The occupants of Nazi concentration camps sure didn’t mind seeing American troops.
Speaking of “think”, if one were to wade through your intellect, they wouldn’t get their feet damp.
You’re either Canadian or Eurotrash, which explains your effete personality.
Her occupation was one of the worst kept secrets in Washington. One of the places she was “outed” was on Page 5710, 2003 Edition of “Who’s Who in America”. Doesn’t say what her profession is, but “covert” agents aren’t supposed to have their name in print.
Actually, by 2003 she was assigned as a desk jockey at the CIA and hadn’t been “covert” since 1992.
As a matter of fact, her loser husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, introduced her to everyone they met as his “CIA wife”.
A month before conservative columnist Bob Novak published her name, disclosing her position as a WMD analyst at the CIA, an interview with then U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, was conducted by none other than Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward. During the exchange, Armitage explained that he already knew about her because Wilson ’was calling everybody’, i.e. reporters and everyone else who would listen. Looks like Joe had a hand in his wife’s “outing”.
Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501857.html?nav=rss_politics/administrationAnd speaking of Joe: He became unhinged after the discovery of his lies and contrasting statements before and after Plame arranged his trip to Niger. He’s a has-been with a serious woulda/coulda inferiority complex, who used his wife to prop up his waning career.
You leftwingnuts crawl out from under your rocks at very strange intervals. If you were so concerned about legalities, national security, and lies, you should have been as busy as a one-legged person in an asskicking contest during Clinton’s regime.
Mike P:My ‘lazy ass’ served in Iraq twice as both Soldier and Intelligence Analyst. The truth beyond your politics:
we found a substantial amount of hidden WMD along with documents and recordings in which Saddam Hussein emphatically stated his intention to continue WMD development and deception.
1) Declassified NGIC report:
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/Iraq_WMD_Declassified.pdf2) 1.77 metric tons of enriched uranium: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm
3) 1,500 gallons of chemical weapons agents:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/AR2005081300530.html
4) Chemical warheads containing cyclosarin:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/07/02/international1018EDT0516.DTL
and: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124576,00.html
5) Over 1,000 radioactive materials in powdered form meant for dispersal over populated areas:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm
6) Roadside bombs loaded with mustard and “conventional” sarin gas, assembled in binary chemical projectiles for maximum potency: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120137,00.html
Those weapons were previously unknown to U.N. inspectors.
Oh yeah, and his terrorist connections:
He gave thousands of dollars to families of suicide bombers and in addition, Iraqi intelligence met with al Qadea operatives and provided with training camps in Northern Iraq:
The Mother of All Connections
From the July 18, 2005 issue: A special report on the new evidence of collaboration between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and al Qaeda.
by Stephen F. Hayes & Thomas Joscelyn
07/18/2005, Volume 010, Issue 41
Source:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/804yqqnr.asp?pg=1
Saddam Hussein, as evidenced by the WMD found, his previous use, continued willingness to use them, and the documents discovered which connected him to terrorists, was a threat. The fact remains that the inspectors got absolutely nowhere with regard to full disclosure of Hussein’s WMD program.
I’m an Iraq War vet, and I’m damned glad we not only invaded, but took out the sonofabitch and got those WMDs before anyone had the chance to use them. Had I the power, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran (for starters) would have been asphalt parking lots on 12 September 2001. But, I’m a former Soldier, not a diplomat.
Hussein wasn’t the only threat. Just one of them. But, not anymore, is he?
I used the heart-rending picture of the American soldier with the dead child, which appears on the front cover of Michael Yon’s book, in my video on Tony Blair’s ‘Impossible Dream’ of Peace in the Middle East. It features at around 25 seconds into the video.
Tony Blair – Middle East Peace Envoy – Impossible?
An article from December 2007 – following a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed 13 people. “Sharia can help women” … spreading a liberal Islam.
This was no ordinary morning. Falling in the middle of the international 16-Day Campaign to Eliminate Violence Against Women, the Afghan Women’s Resource Center (AWRC) in Chilsitoon had scheduled a ceremony and invited local male dignitaries to attend. The goal was to raise awareness of women’s issues and garner support from local law enforcement, as well as provide an educational opportunity about domestic violence, HIV/AIDS prevention and women’s rights.
Just a few blocks from the ceremony location, less than two hours before the commencement, the suicide bomber had already taken the stage.
Tags: Barack Obama 2, michael yon, moment of truth in iraq, oil in iraq, President Bush, the surge
Tony Blair 
August 24, 2008 at 1:28 am |
[…] John Podhoretz wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptOf course, the Iraq war has led some to think that the United States has committed a tragic imperial overreach. Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant, a truth widely accepted by the international community. Yet the international community … […]
August 24, 2008 at 8:27 am |
Hi KTBFPM
Thanks for drawing attention to the US Blogger Michael Yon, as you know I am a regular reader and have been since he has been blogging from Iraq and Afghanistan.
As for the info provided by the US soldier, all this info is available on the internet, so why ,oh why, can’t the newspapers and TV find it ? my guess is that if they did bring attention to all this info then it would put a big hole in their anti-war/anti Bush/Blair stance wouldn’t it.
BTW another good blogger who also happens to be called Michael is Michael Totten. Michael Totten is right now in Georgia and bringing all the info from what is happening on the ground, makes very interesting reading.
Can’t remember what his web address is right now but will e-mail it to you.
bye for now
Shaz
August 24, 2008 at 9:16 am |
Hi there Shaz,
Yes, Michael Yon is a great man and determined to show the positive side of things in those difficult situations.
You are SO right about the press here NOT wanting to use this kind of thing in case it undermines their stance.
There needs to be more of us writing and contributing out there with the facts. Do you ever comment at some of the “anti” articles in our papers? I never get printed in the Mail as it is so anti Blair and I always use my BlairSupporter alias. THEY are unbelievably and illiberally prejudiced, imho.
Yes, I have visited Michael Totten’s website too.
This is Michael’s website.
http://www.michaeltotten.com/
August 24, 2008 at 10:06 am |
Hi
I have only ever posted on the BBC “Have your say” site where the public are asked to answer a question they pose, trouble is the question at times is fairly loaded with the BBC’s side of the theme, not only that, but the small piece they write on the top of the page before all the public’s comments is rather biased as well.
Anyway, have posted on there have got some of my postings on the “Have your say ” site but not all. I find the “Have your say” site to be very anti-American ie Bush, anti Blair. At times when they have posed a question you can almost predict what the comments are going to be, although at times I have seen comments from the other side of the fence, although these are very rare.
from Shaz
August 24, 2008 at 10:18 am |
Many of the THE BBC’s programmes are incredibly anti Blair/Bush.
I used to watch BBC’s Question Time and listen to Any Questions on Radio 4. Now there is seldom ANYONE on those programmes who reflects what I am thinking about politics. A policy here and there, yes, but no-one that I feel speaks for me.
Don’t know whether the intelligentsia Beeb has become the last bastion of liberalism or what. (If you knew my history you’d wonder at this thought) But it’s certainly full of some strangely unrealistic oddities. Many from Labour’s past wanting to go back to the future and describing Blair as the Malevolence Personified or at least an Aberration of Real Politics. He is the opposite of both of those, imho.
At the same time all parties have moved onto Blair’s ground – and won’t give the man credit for anything.
There’s a word for our press and the political nonentities competing for credibility right now.
I don’t like to use it on a Sunday morning.
August 25, 2008 at 3:26 pm |
blair has not changed the country according to latest press opinion for the better that wouldn’t be forgotten unlike thatcher. i think it was in guardian sunday
August 25, 2008 at 3:34 pm |
Do you mean this David Cox report on war and peace and Star Wars?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/aug/18/star.wars
I’m sure I recall his rather miserable face in an anti-Blair article before. But here his reference to Blair is only fleeting.
In any case we ALL know that politics passes over most people’s heads. They are MUCH more interested in the dumb a**es who appear on Big Brother than in people who really DO make a difference to their lives.
That’s one of the reasons I couldn’t think of getting too involved in frontline politics.
I’m disillusioned with the voters
;0)
September 11, 2008 at 2:45 am |
[…] am NOT affiliated in any way If you have never visited Michael Yon??s website, why not? He visits Irhttps://keeptonyblairforpm.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/michael-yons-report-from-iraq-afghanistan/Read “Smart mercedes dealer parts price shopping? and fog lites” at Smart Car Modifications […]
September 12, 2008 at 4:39 pm |
[…] am NOT affiliated in any way If you have never visited Michael Yon??s website, why not? He visits Irhttps://keeptonyblairforpm.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/michael-yons-report-from-iraq-afghanistan/Read “Re: Grandpa’s Boots” at Survival Prep Forum I’m currently wearing a pair of georgia boots. […]
September 13, 2008 at 1:47 pm |
[…] am NOT affiliated in any way If you have never visited Michael Yon??s website, why not? He visits Irhttps://keeptonyblairforpm.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/michael-yons-report-from-iraq-afghanistan/Another AP story that lies about who leaks the bimbo’s nameNothing to see here, just another lie […]