Thoughts on the President's Press Conference

This morning, President Bush conducted a press conference to brief the American people on his visit to Iraq. The President returned to old themes on the Iraq War, while adding a new message to the fold, not to play politics with the battlefield. The President appeared to be confident in the long-term progress being made in Iraq, and rejected a time table to withdraw troops.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with a soldier who returned from Iraq. This soldier assured me that things are better in Iraq than what we see each night on television. The soldier told me stories of being greeted in the streets by the Iraqi people and stated that we are getting the job done.

I have been a supporter of the Iraq War and War on Terrorism from the beginning. I applaud the President for staying the course in Iraq. I am reposting remarks I made back in December to this very issue because I think they are appropriate to this discussion.

Posted December 19, 2005 by Blue Dog
I know this posting will make some of my Democratic friends uneasy, but those who know me best understand that I have been a supporter of the Bush Administration's War on Terror since the early hours of September 11, 2001.

I have always believed that politics needs to end at our countires waters. I am not ashamed of my wholehearted support of President Bush's decision to invade Afghanistan and Iraq; positions that were unpopular with many in my party. I still believe I was correct in my support for President Bush and would do the same if the clock was turned back.

In last nights speech to the nation, President Bush made the most compelling arguments to date for America's committment to staying the course in Iraq and winning the "big picture" in the War on Terrorism. War is not pretty. The images shown on our TV screens at night are gruesome and do affect the moral of the American people. We must not foreget that in our countries previous wars, men have died.Would the outcome of World War II be different now if TV screens were prominent in every American household? Would people question the resolve of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to defeat the Evil Axis of Nazi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Tojo's Japan? It makes you wonder!

Our country is persuing the correct policy in the Middle East. Democratic nations do not fight each other. A free Iraq will eventually lead to a peaceful Middle East as people are awakened to the freedoms accustomed with democracy. Other nations in the region will, and some currently are, (Egypt and Lebanon come to mind), be forced to deal with their own tyrannical and oppressive governments. By spreading freedom in this region, our enemies will have no base of operation to launch attacks on western governments.

Our fighting men and women are doing a hell-of-a-job in Iraq. We must honor the sacrafices they are making in this struggle between good and evil. To quit now would dishonor the men and women who have given their lives to this cause of freedom, and embolden the terrorists to attack us in the future.