Merlin1047
Senior Member
Kathianne said:Nope, I'll still be impressed with the people. With the man that held up his voting receipt and said it was a bullet to the terrorists.
To the woman who held up her ink stained finger and said to the effect it was for the future of her country.
To the thousands of Iraqi voting monitors who showed up, when the UN was too afraid to send in monitors, in spite of being known targets of the terrorists.
Of the Iraqi military and police, who were the first and second line of defense, who kept all the suicide bombers outside of the polling places.
I didn't mean to sound as if I was belittling the achievement. This is an unqualified success. It reflects great credit on the administration, certainly the military and on the Iraqis who voted.
What I am saying is that it's not time to break out the party hats and champagne and start celebrating. To put this situation in military terms, this is the same as when a unit has won a battle and driven the enemy from their objective. The first thing we do next is prepare for a counter-attack. You don't stop and celebrate, because if you do, you will soon have your ass handed to you.
This is where we are in the Iraqi situation. We need to prepare for the counter-attack because one is certainly coming. And we need to prepare our next move. We need to force the terrorists to respond to our actions instead of having us respond to theirs.
So while this is indeed a momentous day in Iraq, it is not the end of the process. It is only the end of the beginning.