RUSH: ‘U.S. military commanders are talking with Iraqi militants about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence, the No. 2 American commander said Thursday. Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno said he has authorized commanders to reach out to militants, tribes, religious leaders and others in the country that has been gripped by violence from a range of fronts including insurgents, sectarian rivals and common criminals. ‘We are talking about cease-fires, and maybe signing some things that say they won’t conduct operations against the government of Iraq or against coalition forces,’ Odierno told Pentagon reporters in a video conference from Baghdad. ‘It’s just the beginning, so we have a lot of work to do on this,’ he said. ‘But we have restructured ourselves to organize to work this issue.”
Now, this is a huge. If you’re talking about a cease-fire here, this is something that results from strength. It is not something that results from weakness. I’ll tell you what the Democrats are going to say. I know how they’re going to spin this. We’ll probably get a statement from Dingy Harry, if they even refer to this. They may not, since the Drive-Bys are doing their best here to keep this news story sequestered. But I think what Dingy Harry will say, ‘Well, this shows the weakness of the US position. We have to negotiate cease-fires with the enemy to stop our brave soldiers from being killed. We can’t defeat them, and this proves it.’ That’s what he’ll say. That’s what they’re trying to spin right now. Then of course somebody might add, ‘ they will break the cease-fire.’
Of course, Dingy Harry won’t say that because our enemies are honorable. We’re not. But if Dingy Harry does say something like this he’s going to further go down the road of being a pathetic laughingstock. It’s when you negotiate from strength, that’s the road to victory. If they’re going to reach out — I guess they already have reached out for a cease-fire to stop the violence in Iraq. I guarantee you this is not our idea. We’re not the ones offering the cease-fire. We’re going to see if they want to because apparently some signals have been sent from the bad guys that that is what they want to do.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Theresa in Waukegan, Illinois. Isn’t that where Jack Benny was from?
CALLER: I believe so.
RUSH: How are you?
CALLER: I’m fine. Thank you, Rush. I am so excited to be able to talk to you. I tell you whenever I’m down about the country, all I have to do is wait until Rush comes on every afternoon Monday through fry and I’ll feel better about our country.
RUSH: I appreciate your saying that. What is it that makes you down on the country, or makes you feel that way? What happens to make you start thinking that way?
CALLER: Well, because of the idiotic things that you hear that our leaders are doing and our Congress, our president, the military leaders — which is why I was calling — and all these yahoos out here who have got everybody convinced of all the things you’ve been saying about Hillary, and I’m, like, going, ‘I’m the one who’s stuck in the middle. You guys want to take my money. You guys want to take our money. What’s left to feed my family?’ and me, I worry about the terrorists. I have to take care of my own kids because the government isn’t going to take care of it. (groan)
RUSH: But, see, it’s working. They are trying to make you feel as miserable as they do.
CALLER: Well, that’s why I listen to you because —
RUSH: Well, thank goodness you have me, because if you didn’t have me, this stuff would overtake you and you’d be throwing up your hands in frustration, wondering, ‘What’s the point of it all?’
CALLER: Exactly! Exactly. That’s why I was calling, because now I hear, who are these military commanders who are talking to the terrorists? I mean, what kind of military strategy is that? I thought —
RUSH: Wait. You’re talking about this cease-fire business?
CALLER: Yeah!
RUSH: Now, wait. When you saw that story, what was it that made you think that’s happening because the United States has a weakened position there?
CALLER: Oh, I didn’t think we had a weakened position. I didn’t understand why they were because we are on the good side, you know? We are the strong one.
RUSH: Do you understand how huge this is, that the bad guys want to talk cease-fire?
CALLER: Yeah, I think that maybe we ought to go down there and beat them some more until they scream some more, you know?
RUSH: Oh, okay, so you want to wipe ’em out now that they’re talking cease-fire and you don’t understand —
CALLER: Oh, yeah!
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Oh, yeah! That’s a sign that they’re ready to give up. That’s just a sign for us to be harder.
RUSH: Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it means they intend to give up, but it does indicate a much weaker position that they are holding than is being reported, of course, by the Drive-Bys.
CALLER: Exactly. But wer’e talking to them. Well, why don’t the police just talk to the criminals and say, ‘Hey, why don’t we just… You know, let’s not have any more gang bang murders, okay?’ They don’t do that. They go out there and arrest them. That’s what our military should be doing! They shouldn’t be talking to these criminals and terrorists.
RUSH: (Chuckles.) You befuddle me. We have a situation here. You can’t compare this to local crime. We have declared hostilities here.
CALLER: Yes, but I read that same article —
RUSH: Wait. Wait a minute, now. In previous wars that we’ve had, when the bad guys wanted to surrendered, we talked to them.
CALLER: Uh-huh.
RUSH: We issued terms of surrender and so forth, and that’s what’s being discussed here. There are terms of surrender being determined and thought about, how they could be proposed and so forth. Now, in past — like in World War II — the Japanese surrendered after we did do what you suggest we do here, you know, Nagasaki, so forth and so on. The big difference with this is that this indicates a show of weakness. We’re trying to preserve the Iraqi government and have it grow and so forth. The big thing here to me is that this runs totally counter to what the daily Drive-By news is every day, and that is that we’re getting shellacked, that we’re getting creamed, and it’s hopelessly lost. Dingy Harry has already said so. We can’t win this thing — and all of a sudden the bad guys want to talk about a cease-fire.
CALLER: Yeah, exactly.
RUSH: It may be a trick, but the reason they’re talking about a ceasefire is because we’re doing what you want; it just isn’t being reported. We must be kicking butt big time! It just may not be reported in a way that you know about it, but they’re not coming along and saying, ‘Okay, we’ll talk ceasefire,’ because they’re winning. It’s just the opposite. This kind of stuff happens when you occupy the position of strength. I fully expect the Democrats to spin this and to suggest that the administration ‘wants to give up and admit defeat. It’s the only way to save our brave soldiers from dying,’ and all that. I’m waiting for that to happen, by the way.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, there is another possibility for this cease-fire, a little float that the terrorists are engaging in here in Iraq, and it could simply be this. It could be something totally unrelated to our analysis up to this point. The terrorists suggesting that they’re interested in talking cease-fire could simply be their way of telling the Democrats in this country that they’re unhappy with the Democrats providing more funding without a withdrawal timetable. The terrorists might have looked at the latest vote in the House where the Democrats retreated from retreat and surrendered from surrender and said, ‘Well, my gosh, we’ve lost our allies in Washington. As long as we’re going to support ’em, we’re going to hang tough over here. We’re going to try to beat Bush for them,’ and so forth, as long as they come up with a definite withdrawal date to get the army outta here. But now the Democrats have caved, and so the terrorists are saying, ‘Well, we don’t know where bin Laden is. Zawahiri is a nonfactor. We’re all over the place in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Jihad is not the organized thing it used to be. Now we’ve lost our big allies, the Democrats, what are we going to do?’ It could be that, ladies and gentlemen.