Did Dick Durbin Denounce President Bush's Speech on Iraq?

Lee Ellis

Tonight, in a televised address to the entire world, President Bush gave our nation hope of winning the Iraq War, while Senator Dick Durbin gave al Qaeda and all Islamic fanatics hope of our defeat and our capitulation.

Nothing can Vietnamize this war more than having our President's speech to all Americans and Iraqis about a new planned strategy to win this war and to allow freedom to exist in the Middle East, while, at the same time, having the Congressional majority neutralize everything the President said, thus aiding and abetting the jihadist movement to inflict fear and destruction throughout the world.

This strategy to have more American troops available to hold a neighborhood after the insurgents had been eliminated by our current soldiers is one that has been needed. The new troops are not being thrust into the crosshairs of a bloody battle as Durbin suggested, but will, instead, be embedded with the Iraqi troops to keep the vicious thugs from re-entering these Iraqi neighborhoods.

The 20,000 additional troops match the military mandate of a ratio of 1 to 50 for controlling a military area --- one soldier for every 50 civilians. The problem, before, was that after our troops secured an area and were then moved to a new target area, jihadists, financed by Iran, were able to sneak back across the border into these neighborhoods.

Also, the province of Al Anbar, adjacent to the Syrian border, is being used by al Qaeda as a new gathering place for the insurgents. President Bush agreed to put 4,000 of our troops into this one area, alone, to stop this practice. Senator John McCain also agreed with President Bush, tonight on TV, saying that it was necessary to put more troops into Iraq.

As an oped in the WSJ reported, "Al Qaeda and its terrorist allies are waging their war on several continents. They will try to overthrow governments and seize power where they can--and where they cannot, they will attempt to inflict fear and destruction by disrupting settled ways of life. They will employ every weapon they can: assassinations, car bombs, airplanes, and, if they can secure them, biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons."

What makes Pelosi, Reid, Durbin, Schumer and others, along with some RINO Republicans, think that by counteracting the President and his winning strategy, by giving in to the insurgents, that these Islamic hordes will not push us out of the Middle East? Remembering the 1979 take-over of the Iranian embassy, the 2007 possibility of the loss of our new Iraqi embassy could be even more catastrophic, causing us to lose the high tech intelligence that now keeps us from having more 9/11s raining down upon innocent men women and children here in the United States!

Abraham Lincoln, said in a 1858 speech to the Illinois Republican Convention, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." It is too bad that Senator Durbin could not remember his Illinois history and do what was best for his country tonight rather than what might be best for his party's desperate need for power and glory .

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com