If you missed my oped in the Detroit News on Thursday, Sept. 13th.....
Is Petraeus correct that Iraq surge is working?
Iraq becomes more stable as U.S. starts winning 'War for Freedom'
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter
Critics whose foreign policy expertise fits on an eco-friendly foreign car's fender allege Iraq is a "bumper sticker war without end." This slogan is false. Finally, if fitfully, this integral theater in our nation's War for Freedom is becoming a free, stable state opposed to terrorism; and the Iraq war is ending because we are winning.
This news was obscured amid the repugnant partisan attempts to spin the congressional testimony of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker as dishonest or erroneous. While it will arrive neither quickly nor cheaply, the truth will emerge as our troops succeed in their mission and start coming home.
Incorporating Crocker's diplomatic initiatives, Petraeus' new counter-insurgency strategy's goal in Iraq is to eradicate insurgents and place reconstruction efforts into local Iraqis' hands. This strategy is succeeding. Due to increased security and economic opportunity, Iraqis are choosing liberty instead of the insurgency.
Iraqi shift to liberty
In his Sept. 7 letter to the Multi-National Force-Iraq, Petraeus stressed the importance of Iraqis' political shift to liberty:
"We are also building momentum in an emerging area of considerable importance -- local reconciliation. Local Iraqi leaders are coming forward, opposing extremists and establishing provisional units of neighborhood security volunteers. With growing government of Iraq support, these volunteers are being integrated into legitimate security institutions to help improve local security. While this concept is playing out differently in various areas across Iraq, it is grounded in a desire shared by increasing numbers of Iraqis -- to oppose extremist elements and their ideologies.
"This is very significant because, as many of you know first hand, extremists cannot survive without the support of the population. The popular rejection of al-Qaida and its ideology has, for example, helped transform Anbar Province this year from one of the most dangerous areas of Iraq to one of the safest. The popular rejection of extremists has helped Coalition and Iraqi Forces take away other areas from al-Qaida as well, and we are seeing a spread of this sentiment in an ever-increasing number of Sunni areas. Now, in fact, we are also seeing a desire to reject extremists emerge in many Shia areas."
Iraqi security participation up
This critical local reconciliation has increased Iraqi participation in their security; hastened the day they will be solely responsible for it; and, as in the early days of American independence, Iraqi local reconciliation will precede, facilitate and dictate national reconciliation. But most important for Americans, Iraqis' local reconciliation is the reason Petraeus proposed commencing troop reductions this month and continuing them through July 2008, when nearly 30,000 of our citizen-soldiers will have departed harm's way for home.
Perversely, critics decry this good news as a "token" political stunt. Demanding our immediate retreat in Iraq, these detractors ascribe their own misdeeds upon others -- namely, playing politics with our troops.
A strategic retreat is a dangerous maneuver for a fighting force, which gets smaller as the advancing enemy grows stronger. When rushed, disaster results, as happened to the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. Petraeus and Crocker refuse to repeat this mistake. Thus, American troop reductions are based upon progress in Iraq, not politics in Washington.
This responsible nexus for our troops' return threatens the radical left because it mutes its propaganda claims that a "war without end" has somehow already ended in America's defeat. Instead, every American has a concrete "benchmark" to measure our progress to victory in Iraq: witnessing and welcoming the return of our triumphant troops.
True, our troops can't come home quickly enough. No, this does not mean the war is won, as arduous and dangerous work remains. Yes, our nation must vigilantly monitor the facts on the ground to ensure the Iraqis' local political shift to liberty proceeds with requisite speed.
But let those who won't unite behind the cause of victory at least welcome the news that our troops -- because of progress in Iraq -- are coming home with their "mission accomplished." Now that will look good on the grille of a Michigan-made SUV.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Rep. McCotter speaks on the House Floor about Gen. Petraeus' Testimony on the progress in Iraq.
Tonight I spoke on the U.S. House floor to discuss Gen. Petraeus' Testimony. Below is a video of my remarks.
Remarks to the "Fight for Victory" Rally
United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter
Upper Senate Park, United States Capitol
September 10, 2007
Good morning, sovereign citizens of our free republic: we unite today as the latest generation of Americans duty-bound to defend freedom in an hour of maximum danger; and, undaunted and determined, we affirm our full measure of devotion to our troops; their families; and American victory.
It is fitting we do so this morning, as on the morrow we observe the fateful date three thousand of our fellow Americans were murdered; and, so heinously invaded, our nation was thrust into an unsought struggle – the War for Freedom – against the butcher Bin-Laden’s death cult and Middle-Eastern fascism.
To our free people, who were errantly told the Soviet implosion was the “end of history” and liberty’s enemies, September 11, 2001, was a harsh truth told anew: As the world’s beacon of freedom and bastion of hope for the enslaved and oppressed, our nation is the target for every tyrant and terrorist bent upon usurping God’s dominion over humanity. In consequence, the enemy seeks to kill us for the “sin” of being free.
For some of our fellow citizens, the shock of events has proven overwhelming; and they deny the present danger’s gravity and/or the enemy’s reality. For example, some claim Iraq is not part of the “real war on terror,” though even the butcher Bin-Laden disagrees with them. My friends, it is clear: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. American troops are defeating Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Iraq is part of the real War for Freedom!
Thankfully, this is well understood by General Petraeus and our intrepid forces – who as we speak are being despicably smeared by the less than grateful in our nation. Yet, despite the radical Left shooting at these messengers, the heartening news is General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy is providing the local security and reconstruction efforts sufficient to permit the Iraqi’s “local political shift” to liberty and away from the insurgency. This separation of the population from the enemy will be the foundation upon which is built a stable and free Iraq that captures terrorist instead of creating them.
Once America has won in Iraq, this “grassroots-up” unleashing of liberty will equally bear fruit in Afghanistan. Ultimately, as a sea of free peoples comes to envelope the despotic, terror-sponsoring Iranian regime, it will, like the Soviet Union before it, be propelled by its own people into the trash can of history.
So to those desperate for surrender who claim the United States has been defeated in Iraq, let us unequivocally reassert the principle our free people have historically and heroically championed to defeat our enemies: To ensure liberty for ourselves, we must extend liberty to the enslaved.
Thus, to retreat in the face of the Al-Qaeda death cult and Mid-East fascism now, would condemn Iraqis by the tens, perhaps the hundreds of thousands for the “capital crime” of believing in our professed commitment to their freedom;
To retreat in the face of the enemy now would betray our own revolutionary commitment to and inherited legacy of liberty;
To retreat in the face of the enemy now would ideologically disarm us for, if not liberty, what can we offer the people of the region to turn them away from the enemy and toward us; and
Truly, to retreat in the face of the enemy now would dishonor the sacrifices of American and coalition citizen-soldiers who gave the last full measure of their devotion to emancipate millions of Muslims from slavery and servitude so their region and our world could experience a new birth of freedom.
To this deplorable prospect of retreat and surrender, we say: Never!
My fellow Americans, through this crucible of liberty, our course is tough; our cause is just. Our enemy is the sire of tyranny; we are the children of liberty. We cannot co-exist. A world condensed by an internet will not endure half-slave and half-free.
Thus, with prudence and courage, we must prove our devotion to liberty transcends our enemy’s obsession with death; and, united amongst ourselves and with other free peoples, we can, we must, and we will win!
May God continue to grace, guard, guide, and bless the steps of our troops and their families; and of the majestic American people who, for the sake of generations yet un-named, walk and widen the path of human freedom.
Upper Senate Park, United States Capitol
September 10, 2007
Good morning, sovereign citizens of our free republic: we unite today as the latest generation of Americans duty-bound to defend freedom in an hour of maximum danger; and, undaunted and determined, we affirm our full measure of devotion to our troops; their families; and American victory.
It is fitting we do so this morning, as on the morrow we observe the fateful date three thousand of our fellow Americans were murdered; and, so heinously invaded, our nation was thrust into an unsought struggle – the War for Freedom – against the butcher Bin-Laden’s death cult and Middle-Eastern fascism.
To our free people, who were errantly told the Soviet implosion was the “end of history” and liberty’s enemies, September 11, 2001, was a harsh truth told anew: As the world’s beacon of freedom and bastion of hope for the enslaved and oppressed, our nation is the target for every tyrant and terrorist bent upon usurping God’s dominion over humanity. In consequence, the enemy seeks to kill us for the “sin” of being free.
For some of our fellow citizens, the shock of events has proven overwhelming; and they deny the present danger’s gravity and/or the enemy’s reality. For example, some claim Iraq is not part of the “real war on terror,” though even the butcher Bin-Laden disagrees with them. My friends, it is clear: Al Qaeda is in Iraq. American troops are defeating Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Iraq is part of the real War for Freedom!
Thankfully, this is well understood by General Petraeus and our intrepid forces – who as we speak are being despicably smeared by the less than grateful in our nation. Yet, despite the radical Left shooting at these messengers, the heartening news is General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy is providing the local security and reconstruction efforts sufficient to permit the Iraqi’s “local political shift” to liberty and away from the insurgency. This separation of the population from the enemy will be the foundation upon which is built a stable and free Iraq that captures terrorist instead of creating them.
Once America has won in Iraq, this “grassroots-up” unleashing of liberty will equally bear fruit in Afghanistan. Ultimately, as a sea of free peoples comes to envelope the despotic, terror-sponsoring Iranian regime, it will, like the Soviet Union before it, be propelled by its own people into the trash can of history.
So to those desperate for surrender who claim the United States has been defeated in Iraq, let us unequivocally reassert the principle our free people have historically and heroically championed to defeat our enemies: To ensure liberty for ourselves, we must extend liberty to the enslaved.
Thus, to retreat in the face of the Al-Qaeda death cult and Mid-East fascism now, would condemn Iraqis by the tens, perhaps the hundreds of thousands for the “capital crime” of believing in our professed commitment to their freedom;
To retreat in the face of the enemy now would betray our own revolutionary commitment to and inherited legacy of liberty;
To retreat in the face of the enemy now would ideologically disarm us for, if not liberty, what can we offer the people of the region to turn them away from the enemy and toward us; and
Truly, to retreat in the face of the enemy now would dishonor the sacrifices of American and coalition citizen-soldiers who gave the last full measure of their devotion to emancipate millions of Muslims from slavery and servitude so their region and our world could experience a new birth of freedom.
To this deplorable prospect of retreat and surrender, we say: Never!
My fellow Americans, through this crucible of liberty, our course is tough; our cause is just. Our enemy is the sire of tyranny; we are the children of liberty. We cannot co-exist. A world condensed by an internet will not endure half-slave and half-free.
Thus, with prudence and courage, we must prove our devotion to liberty transcends our enemy’s obsession with death; and, united amongst ourselves and with other free peoples, we can, we must, and we will win!
May God continue to grace, guard, guide, and bless the steps of our troops and their families; and of the majestic American people who, for the sake of generations yet un-named, walk and widen the path of human freedom.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter speaks to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County Fashion Show
This Afternoon I spoke to the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Maryland, at their Fashion Show Fundraiser. Here is video of my speech. Enjoy.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Fighting the Spin on Petraeus Report...Rep. McCotter on Hill Tube
Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said he's fighting the spin on the upcoming Petraeus report
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Battle of "The Bums"
During their mutual month-long August recesses, wherein public confidence in each has plummeted to record lows, the American Congress (“Our Bums”) is denouncing the Iraqi Parliament (“Their Bums”) as “do nothings.” Further, despite American military progress on the ground in Iraq, Washington claims Baghdad’s failure to meet political benchmarks will doom General Petraeus’ plan for victory.
The premise of this claim is absolutely backwards.
Along Iraq’s bloody path to freedom, the greatest obstacle has been the average Iraqi’s wary neutrality in the battle between the United States’ “Coalition of the Willing” and the insurgents. Today, a nihilistic insurgency has been revealed to offer average Iraqis nothing but subjugation and extermination; in stark contrast, General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy is delivering both the eradication of the insurgents and localized reconstruction efforts – i.e., a palpable hope for security and prosperity. Consequently, the true measure of political progress in Iraq is NOT found in its national Parliament; the true measure of political progress in Iraq is occurring in local tribes, towns and provinces where Iraqis are choosing liberty instead of the insurgency.
This Iraqi “election for freedom” is not an intrinsically military development. It is fundamentally a political development complementing and speeding military progress; and hastening the day such individual and local “grassroots” political wins collectively dictate political progress in Baghdad.
Let us, as the sovereign citizens of our free republic, ever remember how in representative democracies Parliaments and Congresses do not dictate to sovereign citizens; sovereign citizens dictate to Parliaments and Congresses. Thus, in Iraq each citizen in his or her respective tribe, town and province must inform and consent to federal laws being enacted, implemented, and honored; and, when this consent is individually granted in sufficient numbers, Iraq will complete its transformational emancipation from tyranny to liberty.
Further, let us, as the sovereign citizens of our free republic, ever remember how we cannot abandon Iraq’s fledgling democracy – or any democracy – under terrorist attack. The War for Freedom must be won through ideological, political, economic, diplomatic and – as an ultimate resort – martial means. If the U.S. abandons Iraq’s democracy, we will also abandon our and the entire free world’s inherited legacy of and professed commitment to freedom. If this betrayal of ourselves and the Iraqis occurs, our enemies will be empowered and we will be ideologically disarmed in the face of the enemy. If not liberty, what political principle will a discredited and defeated U.S. promote to turn the Middle East’s oppressed away from Al Qaeda’s extremism?
Come September 15th then, Americans must focus on the true measure of political progress in General Petraeus’ initial strategic assessment – tribal, local, and provincial support for liberty instead of the insurgency; and we must do so cognizant of the truth expressed and proven by prior generations of Americans who, in times of national trial, preserved and promoted our nation’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom: The only way to ensure liberty for ourselves is to extend liberty to the enslaved.
Of course, it would help too, if the collective bums in both the Iraqi Parliament and the American Congress remembered all power in a democracy is vested in its sovereign citizens, not its subservient government.
United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter is the Chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee and one of “Our Bums”
The premise of this claim is absolutely backwards.
Along Iraq’s bloody path to freedom, the greatest obstacle has been the average Iraqi’s wary neutrality in the battle between the United States’ “Coalition of the Willing” and the insurgents. Today, a nihilistic insurgency has been revealed to offer average Iraqis nothing but subjugation and extermination; in stark contrast, General Petraeus’ counter-insurgency strategy is delivering both the eradication of the insurgents and localized reconstruction efforts – i.e., a palpable hope for security and prosperity. Consequently, the true measure of political progress in Iraq is NOT found in its national Parliament; the true measure of political progress in Iraq is occurring in local tribes, towns and provinces where Iraqis are choosing liberty instead of the insurgency.
This Iraqi “election for freedom” is not an intrinsically military development. It is fundamentally a political development complementing and speeding military progress; and hastening the day such individual and local “grassroots” political wins collectively dictate political progress in Baghdad.
Let us, as the sovereign citizens of our free republic, ever remember how in representative democracies Parliaments and Congresses do not dictate to sovereign citizens; sovereign citizens dictate to Parliaments and Congresses. Thus, in Iraq each citizen in his or her respective tribe, town and province must inform and consent to federal laws being enacted, implemented, and honored; and, when this consent is individually granted in sufficient numbers, Iraq will complete its transformational emancipation from tyranny to liberty.
Further, let us, as the sovereign citizens of our free republic, ever remember how we cannot abandon Iraq’s fledgling democracy – or any democracy – under terrorist attack. The War for Freedom must be won through ideological, political, economic, diplomatic and – as an ultimate resort – martial means. If the U.S. abandons Iraq’s democracy, we will also abandon our and the entire free world’s inherited legacy of and professed commitment to freedom. If this betrayal of ourselves and the Iraqis occurs, our enemies will be empowered and we will be ideologically disarmed in the face of the enemy. If not liberty, what political principle will a discredited and defeated U.S. promote to turn the Middle East’s oppressed away from Al Qaeda’s extremism?
Come September 15th then, Americans must focus on the true measure of political progress in General Petraeus’ initial strategic assessment – tribal, local, and provincial support for liberty instead of the insurgency; and we must do so cognizant of the truth expressed and proven by prior generations of Americans who, in times of national trial, preserved and promoted our nation’s revolutionary experiment in human freedom: The only way to ensure liberty for ourselves is to extend liberty to the enslaved.
Of course, it would help too, if the collective bums in both the Iraqi Parliament and the American Congress remembered all power in a democracy is vested in its sovereign citizens, not its subservient government.
United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter is the Chairman of the Republican House Policy Committee and one of “Our Bums”
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Rep. McCotter tells Midwest peers: Start acting like Republicans
INDIANAPOLIS -- Making an unabashed case for "American exceptionalism," Michigan Representative Thad McCotter told a gathering of Midwestern Republicans that their party's congressional members must re-embrace bedrock Republican principles of limited government, lower taxes and expanding liberty.
Calling Democrats "the party of redistribution, regulation and retreat," McCotter said Republicans in Congress must "remember that they are Republicans and act like it." The Livonia Republican, who chairs the House Republican Policy Committee, spoke to activists from a dozen states on the final day of the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference here.
Comparing Americans today to those who suffered the Great Depression and won World War II, McCotter said the United States today faces similarly daunting challenges -- and unlike that previous generation, faces those challenges simultaneously.
The "greatest generation," McCotter said, faced the Depression, World War II, the rise of the Soviet Union and the need to extend civil rights to all Americans regardless of race. Today's challenges, he said, are globalization, the fight against extremist terrorism, the rise of "a communist Chinese super-state" and the question of whether "moral relativism and violent secularism" will undermine America's moral order.
"I believe, like previous generations, we will meet these challenges and overcome them," he said, encouraging Republican activists
He had tough words for China, saying during a question-and-answer session that "I don't think the communist Chinese are fooling anybody except the people making millions of dollars there."
And he got laughter and applause when answering a question about immigration policy. Calling illegal immigration a threat to U.S. sovereignty and the rights of American citizens, McCotter said, "The good news is that your House Republicans are very strong on this issue. Talk to your senators."
You can reach Gordon Trowbridge at (202) 662-8738 or gtrowbridge@detnews.com.
Calling Democrats "the party of redistribution, regulation and retreat," McCotter said Republicans in Congress must "remember that they are Republicans and act like it." The Livonia Republican, who chairs the House Republican Policy Committee, spoke to activists from a dozen states on the final day of the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference here.
Comparing Americans today to those who suffered the Great Depression and won World War II, McCotter said the United States today faces similarly daunting challenges -- and unlike that previous generation, faces those challenges simultaneously.
The "greatest generation," McCotter said, faced the Depression, World War II, the rise of the Soviet Union and the need to extend civil rights to all Americans regardless of race. Today's challenges, he said, are globalization, the fight against extremist terrorism, the rise of "a communist Chinese super-state" and the question of whether "moral relativism and violent secularism" will undermine America's moral order.
"I believe, like previous generations, we will meet these challenges and overcome them," he said, encouraging Republican activists
He had tough words for China, saying during a question-and-answer session that "I don't think the communist Chinese are fooling anybody except the people making millions of dollars there."
And he got laughter and applause when answering a question about immigration policy. Calling illegal immigration a threat to U.S. sovereignty and the rights of American citizens, McCotter said, "The good news is that your House Republicans are very strong on this issue. Talk to your senators."
You can reach Gordon Trowbridge at (202) 662-8738 or gtrowbridge@detnews.com.
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