CLC's

There is a new phrase in Iraq, the acronym for which is CLC's. Before I tell you about this, let me say that Nancy Pelosi is on record as saying "The Surge" did not work; past tense. Irrespective of the fact that the surge is still in the present tense, Nancy has taken her past tense defeatist stance. Why?

Because it is the popular way to go. More than half this country wants our men and women out of Iraq, regardless of the consequences.

In 1991, we pulled out. I was part of that withdrawal, and at the time I was totally down with it. President Bush #1 urged the Iraqi people to buck up, unify, and take down Saddam. President Clinton followed with the same message.

And then our sights were turned elsewhere.

Two morons named Milosevic and Kradzic split the then-Yugoslavia into 3 different nation/states: Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia. In doing so, Milosevic and Kradzic committed the ultimate act of barbarism...genocide. This horrible happening caught the attention of the entire world, and subsequently no one was paying attention to the fact that Saddam was killing people who worked or spoke out against him by the tens of thousands. Yes, a type of genocide was also occurring in Iraq, but we did not see it.

Recently, a Marine raid on an Al Qaeda safe-house yielded a letter written by the lower echelons of the Al Qaeda field leadership to the Al Qaeda headquarters (wherever that may be). In the letter, it stated that CLC's were not only delaying and thwarting Al Qaeda, Iranian, Saudi, and Syrian insurgencies from making progress, the CLC's were out-and-out destroying their efforts to bring chaos and confusion to the region. The letter went on to say that the increased U.S. Military presence (that would be the surge Mrs. Pelosi said was not working) had bolstered the Iraqi people and given rise to the CLC's. The insurgencies are on the run, in other words.

CLC's is the English acronym for the Arabic phrase that means unified and organized resistance. What it stands for is this: Concerned Local Citizenry. Now, there once was a form of CLC in the early to mid-1990's in Iraq, but they had no substantial backing from the U.S. or anyone, and they were extinguished. You know those mass graves we keep finding every couple of weeks????? Those are the forefathers of today’s CLC's, obviously dead and gone at the hands of Saddam. This time is different though. The CLC's have solid, quantified support.

The U.S. government? Noooooo.
The Iraqi government? Nooooooo.
The American people? Nope...not them either.

Then pray tell, JL4...of whom do they fall upon for support? You can't fight back without support, as the mass graves of a decade ago clearly reveal. Who do the people of Iraq trust?

The men and women in the desert fatigues with an American flag sewn to the upper arm, that's who. The Marine. The Special Forces guy. The Ranger. The Airborne dude. The man or woman of the Army Military Intelligence Corps who are schooled and trained to speak Arabic and gain the trust of these brave Iraqi CLC's. These service men and women are the stone pillars to which the Iraqi's have latched themselves onto. The American soldier doesn't care if Iraq becomes a democracy. But they do care about the survival of the CLC's and their children, and the CLC's know this. Iraq has been a den of horrors for a half a century. Most of the Iraqi people have never known peace and contentment. Therefore, the American soldier has no desire to come home until the Iraqi people are free...free from tyranny; free from destruction; free from fear and death. In gaining such trust, the CLC's are now assisting the U.S. forces in the capture and arrest of Al Qaeda or other insurgencies on a daily basis. They (the soldiers) are being told, "325 Barak Obama Lane. There are 13 of the bad guys living in a secret basement of the house." When they go there...surprise, surprise! All 13 are hanging out, making IED's on their prayer rugs.

So Nancy, when you say the surge didn't work, you not only have your tenses wrong, you have your facts wrong as well. When you say "bring our troops home now", you're condemning what is growing in number to the millions - a place in future mass graves that will be discovered in 2015 or 2020. And most importantly, these graves will not be limited to men. There will be women, elderly, and the worlds most precious commodity as well: children.

In closing, I would love to ask Mrs. Pelosi in person, “Nancy, are you prepared to write the letter or go on world-wide television and voice your apology to the Iraqi people? You better be.