Occasionally a story gets published and you are amazed at who actually published it. Consider the following story about life transitioning in Basra, Iraq:
Basra's wary rebirth - Washington Post - MSNBC.com
Here are some excerpts from the story:
Quote:
Basra is beginning to awaken from a four-year dormancy. A recent week-long visit that included several dozen interviews revealed that many of the city's nearly 3 million residents are resuming lives that had been interrupted by an austere interpretation of Islam.
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On this day, Zaki ..walked to an organ and played "Listen to Your Heart" by the 1980s Swedish pop band Roxette. He then swung into a medley of Western and Arab tunes...
Another student joined him, strumming the oud,...When the pair finished, their classmates applauded loudly, itself an act of courage. Even enjoying music was banned in recent years.
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In a traffic circle, Sadr's face has been scratched out on a billboard, the same treatment given to Hussein murals in the weeks after the invasion.
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Restaurants stay open late, no longer forced by insecurity to shut early.
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On a recent night, Salam Hassan, 20, sold Arabic pop music CDs and cellphone ring tones on the sidewalk. A few months ago, Sadrists beat him up and fired a bullet that grazed his knee.
His crime: selling non-Islamic religious songs and ring tones.
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The sounds of drums and dancing now fill the streets every Thursday, when most weddings take place. Cars and buses are decked in flowers and play loud music as revelers head to local hotels for ceremonies.
"It's like a gift from God," exclaimed Abdul Emir Majid
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In al-Andalus Park...Children played on colorful slides and swings. Vendors sold ice cream and toys. It was a remarkable scene given that this park was the reason picnics were banned in Basra.
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Any reasonable freedom-loving person should be overjoyed that Iraqis are beginning to experience true freedom after being oppressed by sadists for decades. Although the story does speak of hesitation and fear of powerful forces that are intent on taking those freedoms away, the overall positive message is hard to contain: things are changing for the better in Iraq! People are overcoming the oppression from hard-liner Islamists and they're beginning to taste life like they've never tasted it before! The bad guys are losing their grip on Iraq!
How did this happen? Did we pull our troops out of Iraq to force the Iraqis to "stand up on their own", like the Dumbocrats wanted us to believe was necessary? NOPE. We "stayed the course" and ADDED troops on the ground. It enabled us to deal some pretty bad blows to the terrorists who want to keep Iraqis oppressed. There's plenty of evidence that shows "the surge" put us over the edge and we're about to see steady improvements over there because of it. The MSNBC story alone is some nice evidence, ESPECIALLY considering that it's coming from
MSNBC!! This has really got to pain liberals...not only to realize that they were so wrong about pulling the troops out, but GWB was SO RIGHT about keeping them in! Flashback to when they were so wrong about the tax cuts and GWB was so right! Gee, that's gotta hurt!
But more evidence is piling up. Over the last week, I've seen news stories about increased weapons caches being "ratted out" in Iraq (
Roadside bombs in Iraq down sharply - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com for one). There's multiple good things about these stories. First, with those weapons seized, the terrorists have fewer toys to kill with. That's good for Allied forces and good for regular Iraqis! Second, the reporting of these caches to police indicates that Iraqis are trusting their government more and distrusting the insurgents more. They are also fearing the insurgents/terrorists less and realizing the value of ending their killing sprees. This process should continue to snowball...with more weapons off the street, there should be less violence and thus less fear in exposing terrorists and their deadly toys. This is precisely what the terrorists didn't want to happen, which is why they frequently targeted lines of police recruits. The tide is turning and it's not looking good for the terrorists!
Another MSNBC story (
Iraq: Teens trained to be suicide bombers - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com) tells of teens being pressured into becoming suicide bombers. This is kind of good news, believe it or not. It's good on a couple of levels. It indicates that terrorists are running out of idiots who are willing to sacrifice their lives for "the cause". Now they are resorting to threatening the lives of the families of their new recruits: "either blow yourself up (along with many other innocent people) or we kill your family members". I would think this effort would eventually backfire on them - perhaps a recruit blows himself up while in the presence of his handlers. Foremost, it shows that they're fighting a losing battle when they have to force people to fight for them. It also shows that the terrorist is the true enemy of Iraqis, not their saviors! Despite Democrats asserting that the U.S. troops were invaders and "occupiers", Iraqis are realizing more and more that the U.S. is there to help them in their fight against their true enemy, the terrorists.
So anyway...there's plenty of evidence to show that the tide is turning in Iraq. Sure, there will be more violence, like the 51 killed in the Hurriyah market today (
Police: Baghdad car bomb kills at least 51 - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com). The scum terrorists will continue to have their victories, but with fewer people fearing them and more Iraqis enjoying their new freedoms, the terrorists will eventually get ratted out and they'll have to scrounge more for their deadly toys.
A free Iraq is what GWB envisioned all along, and his dream looks like it will come true. Not only is this best for the people of Iraq but it deals the deadliest blow to terrorists who would force their hard-line Islamic rules on Iraqis. When they succeed with that, they get to force their belief system on the entire population with schooling (madrasses, etc.) and fear. They can blame all their problems on The West and foment a hatred that justifies killing anyone who doesn't believe like they do. A free Iraq not only WON'T be a terrorist incubator, it will be a force in the region that will pursue and annihilate terrorists, and that's a good thing for America!
So who was ready to pull our troops out of Iraq? Just about every Democrat, except maybe Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman. Don't forget a couple of idiot Republicans like Chuck Hagel and Ron Paul. These people had no vision for the future. They saw surrender and capitulation as the only option. What fools! They had no idea that victory does not come without a price, but worse than that, they had no concept of what the consequences of failure were!
If you vote for a Democrat, you are voting for a fool. I mentioned 2 exceptions, but that's about all there are. Can you name any more who didn't fall for the "pull the troops out" business? In the coming months there should be more and more stories about the improvements in Iraq. Oh look! Here's yet ANOTHER one, reported by Tom Aspell:
msnbc.com Video Player All this will be nice ammunition for the McCain campaign. I'm looking forward to a lot of these successes thrown in Obama's face if just to hear the stories he'll invent to justify his flawed position. It should be entertaining to watch his backpedaling!