Last night, Rich Davis and I had the pleasure of attending a discussion with Pete Hegseth, Executive Director of Vets For Freedom. This event was hosted by the Philadelphia Chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
All photos by the uber talented NeoCon Yes, I did attend this event , but was struck with a 'NO PHOTOGRAPHS, PLEASE' mood during the event.
Pete is an elegant and articulate speaker, who put forth some good points. I was struck by what he described was the key to the success of the surge - winning hearts and minds by realigning our troops to engage the local population and building their trust. We as sheepdogs, are using a similar technique, with our respectful show of support each week in West Chester and in our LTE's and blogs posts.
Pete addressed the issue of rearming former terrorists that have in the recent past killed our troops. He made no excuses for their past behavior but understood the value of bringing these individuals back into the fold - he was quick to point out that not all were accepted with open arms - those accepted were vetted by numerous Coalition and Iraqi forces. Sun Tzu described a similar tactic in the 6th century BC: "The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself"
Pete further elaborated on Iraq pointing out as much as critics of this war love to place Iraq in a box, it is truly part of larger islamic terrorist game plan. I quite agree. Note that most, if not all, anti -war critics demand that our troops leave Iraq. But only Iraq. We are fighting the same terrorists in the Stans, Ethiopia, the Phillipines, and in Afghanistan - but only in Iraq is that same fight immoral and illegal.
What about Iran? Pete spoke about the evidence which strongly points out that Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq, as well in palestine and Lebanon. A good overall strategy to handle this situation would be to have a strong, democratic Iraq. That reality would definitely freak out the mullah's, and make them do something stupid.
Other quick points in Pete's talk: Iraq will be a central issue come October; Iraq outlook for 2008: al-queda is tremendously weakened and Iran is now fighting a proxy war in Iraq.
Thanks goes to NeoCon for informing us of this event and picking out a fantastic Chinese restaurant (The Wok).
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