Victories in the War on Terror Counterpointed with Nothing but Negativity!

You're not to blame if you haven't heard this before. The President hasn't talked much about it and the press wouldn't report it if he did. Yesterday he talked about it and the press didn't report it.

President Bush arrives for a speech to the CENTCOM Coalition Conference. Who knew so many nations, represented by their flags here, were supporting what Democrats have called our "unilateral" efforts in Iraq and the War on Terror.

President Bush Addresses CENTCOM Coalition Conference
White House Transcript
MacDill Air Force Base
Tampa, Florida
May 1, 2007

...CENTCOM has built an impressive record of achievement in a short amount of time. This command was established by President Ronald Reagan to deter a Soviet invasion of the Middle East in the latter days of the Cold War. That era is receding into memory, but it was a long struggle -- one of constant dangers and one of fierce debates. Victory often seemed elusive. Yet victory did come, because America and her allies stood firm against an empire and an ideology that vowed to destroy us.

Once again, history has called on great nations to assume great responsibilities. And once again, it is vital that allies, despite occasional disagreements, hold firm against vicious and determined enemies. We saw the action of this vicious and determined enemy here in America on September the 11th, 2001. Terrorists murdered citizens from more than 80 countries. Since that September morning, acts of terror have appeared in places like Mombasa and Casablanca and Riyadh and Jakarta and Istanbul and London and Amman and Madrid and Beslan and Bali and Algiers, and elsewhere. September the 11th was not an isolated incident. These terrorists bring death to innocents all across the globe. They bring death to commuters on subway trains, and guests who have checked into the wrong hotel, and children attending their first week of school.

Our main enemy is al Qaeda and its affiliates. Their allies choose their victims indiscriminately. They murder the innocent to advance a focused and clear ideology. They seek to establish a radical Islamic caliphate, so they can impose a brutal new order on unwilling people, much as Nazis and communists sought to do in the last century. This enemy will accept no compromise with the civilized world. Here is what the al Qaeda charter says about those who oppose their plans: "We will not meet them halfway, and there will be no room for dialogue with them." These enemies have embraced a cult of death. They are determined to bring days of even greater destruction on our people. They seek the world's most dangerous weapons. Against this kind of enemy, there is only one effective response: We must go on the offense, stay on the offense, and take the fight to them.
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Working together, America and our allies have shared intelligence that has helped thwart many attacks. We uncovered and stopped terrorist conspiracies targeting embassies in Yemen and Singapore and ships in the Straits of Hormuz and the Straits of Gibraltar. We stopped a Southeast Asian terror cell grooming operatives for terrorist attacks. We stopped an al Qaeda cell seeking to develop anthrax. British authorities disrupted a plot to blow up aircraft flying over the Atlantic toward the United States.

Working together, coalition forces have captured or killed key leaders of terrorist networks. Philippine forces killed top leaders of an al Qaeda affiliate. Spanish police captured fugitives wanted in connection with the Madrid train bombings. Terrorist cells have been broken up by countries including Britain and Canada and Denmark and Italy and France and Indonesia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. We must stay on the offense. We must defeat the enemy overseas, so we don't have to face them in our countries.
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Working together, America and our allies are training local forces to conduct counterterrorism activities in their own regions. We are helping key nations stop terrorists from establishing safe havens inside their borders -- including Indonesia and the Philippines and Yemen. The Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership provides counterterrorism and military assistance to Chad and Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia. The East African Counterterrorism Initiative provides border security and police training to Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania, and Uganda.

We're active. We're working together to make this world a safer place. Working together, our coalition is taking steps to stop terrorists from obtaining the world's most dangerous weapons. More than 80 nations have joined the Proliferation Security Initiative. We're working to stop shipments of materials related to weapons of mass destruction on land, at sea, and in the air.
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There are those who say America is engaged in this [Iraq] fight alone. Each of you here knows better. The Iraqis are suffering a lot, but they're in this fight. I'm impressed by the courage of the Iraqi people. Today there are more than 30 nations supporting the operations in Iraq. I appreciate the 17 NATO nations that have contributed forces or been part of the NATO Training Mission to help train Iraqis. I appreciate Georgia's recent decision to contribute 2,000 troops.

There is so much more to this speech, it deserves to be read in full.

Video link here.

Audio link here.

Harry Reid Are You Listening?

In his response to the President's State of the Union Address last January, Senator Harry "war is lost"Reid demanded that we "Listen to the Generals."

Is it wrong to assume he meant "listen to the Generals" In Iraq? Or did he mean instead listen to retired generals with no experience on the Iraq battlefront who have lately become the only generals Democrats praise?

Harry "war is lost" Reid voted along with members of his party and unanimously confirmed General Petraeus to be the commander in Iraq with the new strategy and troop surge Democrats, Reid leading the way, long demanded in Iraq. Now, their craven lust for power is exposed as they undercut the very policy they advocated for so long.

And does Harry "war is lost" Reid believe General Petraeus when he comes to Washington and reports on the progress made so far with the strategy Reid himself advocated?

No.

Speaking on CNN's "The Situation Room" (video here) on April 23rd 2007 Harry "war is lost" Reid said "I Don’t Believe Him [General Petreaus]...because it's not happening. All you have to do is look at the facts."

What facts are you looking at Harry "war is lost" Reid? Don't count your Senate seat gains before they're won.

Can Harry "war is lost" Reid honestly say they have looked at the "facts" or looked instead at what advantage they might gain from failure and defeat? What kind of people are these Democrats who so openly put politics and partisanship before their nation's VICTORY in a time of war?

Look at the FACTS of attacks that have been prevented, lives that have been saved, nations working together WITH the United States in this common battle. How can anyone observing such progress dismiss it in the craven way that Reid and his "war is lost" Democrats do so?

This war, to save us all from the grip of evil, will take longer and cost more lives precisely because some Democrats see it as a vehicle for short term political advantage.

In the long and growing number of years I have observed the political scene, I have seen nothing more shameful, disgusting, damaging and deadly.