{"id":26546,"date":"2007-08-14T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:05:26","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T05:05:26","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T05:05:26","slug":"der_spiegel_does_180_on_iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2007\/08\/14\/der_spiegel_does_180_on_iraq\/","title":{"rendered":"Der Spiegel Does 180 on Iraq!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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RUSH: We have quoted on several occasions on this program stories from the German magazine Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel is as virulently anti-America and anti-war in Iraq as any American publication, as any British publication, if not more so. Thus, the following story is fascinating. This is from Ed Morrissey at his Captain\u2019s Quarters blog. ‘Der Spiegel has reflected and led overwhelming German opposition to the war in Iraq practically from the moment of the invasion in 2003. They have often featured George Bush on their cover in unflattering pictures and with negative headlines such as ‘Power and Lies\u2019,\u2019 but the magazine, Der Spiegel, finally decided to send ‘their own reporter for an in-depth tour of Iraq, and the magazine realizes that the world media has missed the story.\u2019 Now, something\u2019s happening here, folks, when a magazine like Der Spiegel does a 180 — which they\u2019ve done; I\u2019ll read you the relevant excerpts here in a second — and the New York Times is says (paraphrased), ‘Well, we can\u2019t get out of Iraq now. We\u2019re going to be there quite a while.\u2019 Now, we know all of that is to give cover to the Democrats to help rescue them from their untenable position of defeat for the United States Military and the United States, and we\u2019ve had these two guys from Brookings with their story in the New York Times a couple weeks ago about how the surge is working, and everybody is coming to the conclusion that the surge is working, and so it\u2019s regroup time. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Der Spiegel: ‘Since June, Ramadi residents have only known the war from televison [sic]. Indeed, US military officials at the Baghdad headquarters of Operation Iraqi Freedom often have trouble believing their eyes when they read the reports coming in from their units in Ramadi these days. Exploded car bombs: zero. Detonated roadside bombs: zero. Rocket fire: zero. Grenade fire: zero. Shots from rifles and pistols: zero. Weapons caches discovered: dozens. Terrorists arrested: many. Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq — it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq — not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers — are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn\u2019t hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious ‘Sunni Triangle,\u2019 is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction.\u2019 Well, it\u2019s news to them, because they discovered it. They actually sent a reporter over from Der Spiegel and discovered this. <\/p>\n

[Blog] ‘Not all is sweetness and light in this lengthy, multi-part dispatch. Parts of Baghdad are worse than one might imagine, Ullrich Fichtner writes, and one can sense the civil war that awaits when outside authority disappears. Other parts of the capital have improved in ways that exceed expectations, but both have this in common: only the Americans could keep the lid on Baghdad long enough to keep war from exploding in the city.\u2019 Der Spiegel says only Americans can keep the lid on this. Do you know what\u2019s driving this? I\u2019m going to take a big, bold leap here. I\u2019m going to tell you what\u2019s driving this. It is groupthink, and it is groupthink on the part of all of these media people in capitals around the world, and it\u2019s quite simple. They understand the Democrat Party in this country, who they want to win the White House because they want a weak United States — they want people running the United States who will give up our treasury to the United Nations; they want a Democrat in the White House who will consult the rest of the world before taking any action whatsoever. They do not want another Republican. They do not want a Rudy Giuliani, for example, or a Fred Thompson or a Mitt Romney in the White House. They don\u2019t want a tough, no-nonsense leader and man in the White House. They prefer a Democrat. <\/p>\n

Such is their hatred for George W. Bush. Even though he\u2019s not running, they hate him and any other Republican to them is going to be just like him. So the world media has got to save the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party has gone, as I keep saying, over the cliff. It has to be reported that this is working. I\u2019m sure they cringe at saying ‘only Americans can keep the lid on Baghdad,\u2019 and the US military is doing great things in Ramadi and the Sunni triangle. It has to grate on them, because in their hearts they want us to lose. But if we don\u2019t, where does it leave them and the people they prefer to be running this country? It leaves \u2019em out in the cold. I\u2019m telling you, you\u2019ve got the New York Times here offering cover for the Democrats to come back from the abyss, to join the call for victory. I think also, you have the world media doing the same thing. I think also, they know what this Petraeus report is going to say. They\u2019re hoping against hope that he issues a report that says things are hopeless, but that doesn\u2019t quite jibe with what everybody is seeing over there. So I think what they think Petraeus is going to report is a great success, so much success we can actually start bringing some troops home. Who\u2019s going to get credit for that? George W. Bush, and that\u2019s the Democrat Party\u2019s issue: ‘Bring the troops home! Get us out of Iraq.\u2019 <\/p>\n

If the Petraeus report says, ‘You know what? We don\u2019t need as many troops here. We\u2019re doing great. The surge is working. We can start a little bit of a drawdown,\u2019 not a mass exodus, don\u2019t misunderstand, but if he says in any way, ‘We can get by with fewer troops,\u2019 why, the Bush plan will have been successful, and Democrats have to find a way to get in on that because that\u2019s their issue. So this is a prelude to the report coming out in September. It\u2019s why Dingy Harry shelved would have all the Iraq timetable withdrawal bills. It\u2019s why you\u2019re not hearing him. Has anybody heard from Dingy Harry on the war in Iraq since the recess started? Has anybody heard from Nancy Pelosi? We haven\u2019t, have we? Because there\u2019s nothing that they can say that would be commensurate with their line of attack prior to the recess. So what\u2019s going to have to happen here is if Petraeus\u2019 report says, ‘We don\u2019t need as many troops here. This is really working well. We have a long way to go, a lot of challenges ahead, but we think we can do this with less troops.\u2019 Democrats are going to have to have a position where they can say, ‘See? We did it! We made it happen. We brought it about, and we\u2019ve been calling for less troops.\u2019 They\u2019re not going to be get away with it because we have Dingy Harry on tape. Everybody else does, too. <\/p>\n

He proclaimed defeat. So did Pelosi. We got \u2019em saying, We don\u2019t care what Petraeus says. It\u2019s not going to matter. What\u2019s going over there is not working<\/emphasize>. We\u2019ve got that lunatic Murtha. We\u2019ve got all these sound bites we can remind everything, but they\u2019re going to have to recast their position on this. I can\u2019t emphasize that when Der Spiegel does this, folks, it\u2019s like the BBC changing its mind — and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if that happens down the road as we get closer to September. I\u2019m not predicting it. I\u2019m just saying I wouldn\u2019t be surprised. I have a Los Angeles Times story here: ‘Full Force of Troop Surge Hits Militants — Helicopter gunships attacked suspected insurgent hideouts, and U.S. and Iraqi soldiers staged simultaneous raids across Iraq on Monday as coalition forces unleashed the full force of the U.S. troop buildup with Operation Phantom Strike. The U.S.-led commando operations targeted al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite Muslim militants by striking at reported havens…\u2019 they blew up a huge safe-house. I saw the footage on television. ‘At least 17 suspected of being insurgent leaders were captured… Coalition officials said dozens of strategists and financiers were arrested. A senior source in the Badr militia near the southern city of Najaf said a man detained in that holy city was a key figure.\u2019<\/p>\n

So Al-Qaeda and Mookie al-Sadr\u2019s boys are being targeted here, and it\u2019s working. ‘Full Force of Troop Surge Hits Militants\u2019? When\u2019s the last time you can remember a story in any Drive-By Media publication of valor and great success and tremendous strategy and victory by the US military? I\u2019m telling you, something has changed. It\u2019s the Drive-Bys, folks. Don\u2019t believe that they\u2019re doing this to help the military to help George Bush. This is about saving the Democrats, who have gone off the cliff. Even this. This is stunning. There\u2019s another Los Angeles Times story, ‘In Iraq, Another Summer of Power Shortages.\u2019 I saw the headline, and I said, ‘You know what? I don\u2019t have to read this: It\u2019s going to be ‘US Military Failing to Rebuild the Iraqi Infrastructure.\u2019 It\u2019s in bad shape and we\u2019re destroying it, as Obama says, by bombing from the air, raiding, destroying civilians. The US Military, US operations, Baghdad, are uncivilized, with no chance of being held together. Why, the infrastructure falling apart, the electricity grid is in bad shape,\u2019 but that\u2019s not what the story is about. Well, it\u2019s about the failing grid. But get this — and early on in the story. ‘Decades of corruption, neglect and war have left Iraq\u2019s electricity grid on the verge of collapse.\u2019 Iraq\u2019s electricity grid was already in severe disrepair before 2003 — which is the invasion date, for those of you in Rio Linda. So corruption and neglect, the Saddam days, outweigh war as the cause of the electrical grid problem in Baghdad. Another burst of truth from the Drive-Bys. The power is on in the south and north because, Baghdad, when Saddam was there, he stole all the electricity from the south and north of the country and gave it all to Baghdad where he was. Now they\u2019ve distributed some of that power to the north and southern parts of the country, and there\u2019s not as much in Baghdad, but they\u2019re distributing it throughout the country. They\u2019re making improvements. War has improved the electricity situation. This is in the Los Angeles Times! (Gasp!) It\u2019s time to save the Democrats, folks. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: We have quoted on several occasions on this program stories from the German magazine Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel is as virulently anti-America and anti-war in Iraq as any American publication, as any British publication, if not more so. Thus, the following story is fascinating. This is from Ed Morrissey at his Captain\u2019s Quarters blog. 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