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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: Oxford, Massachusetts, this is Harry. Welcome to the EIB Network.
CALLER: Good afternoon, Rush. It’s an honor to talk to, sir.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: May I quickly say happy birthday to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Rush, my question is this — and I haven’t heard anybody mention this. Why don’t we put this whole Iraq question to bed and simply put it to the blue finger test. Let the Iraqis vote. If they want us there, we stay and we take the handcuffs off our troops. If they want us out of there, we leave and let them deal with the circumstances.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: What’s your opinion?
RUSH: That actually — a part of what you just said was actually studied by the White House. The president asked his people. It’s in the New York Times today, from our buddy Jim Rutenberg, which is the only reason I believe there might be some truth to this. The president asked (paraphrased), “Look, why don’t we just pull out of Baghdad and let these people fight it out and let that end it? Whoever wins, wins,” and I was struck by this, because I remember a long time ago, months ago, somebody calling here asking, “What would you do in Iraq, Rush?” I said, “I’m getting to the point where I would pull back to the borders of the country. Pull back. Don’t leave. Just pull back and just let these people have it out and make sure that nobody comes in from Iraq and nobody comes in from Syria or anybody else, and let this thing play out, sort of like I would with the Israeli-Palestinian situation,” knowing full well it would never happen, and the president’s idea, he threw it out there, it was rejected, of course.
Let me tell you why, and answering your question. This isn’t just about the Iraqis. I’m going to be very honest with you. There are some in the administration saying, “This is our last chance, meaning the United States’. This is our last chance.” What? There is no last chance when you are talking about American national security! That’s what this is. This war is not purely about “stabilizing Iraq,” and it never has been. This is a theater in the war on terror. We don’t leave it up to a vote of the Iraqi people as to whether or not they are in favor of US national security. I think the administration — this is little old me saying this — had better remember that that’s what this is about. This war was never about stabilizing Iraq, and the more it gets cast as that, and that alone, well, no wonder the American people are going to turn away from it, because that’s not what this is! This is a theater in the war on terror.
What we are dealing with here is US national security. There are Al-Qaeda cells there. There are Hezbollah cells. There are all kinds of terrorists there, and they are fighting us, and if they don’t fight us there they’re going to fight us wherever we do go, including if we come back home. US national security is at stake here, and so if you put a vote up to the Iraqi people? Why, it’s a suicide pact if you let anybody else vote on national security, and if you run around and saying that this is our “last chance to make this work and make this good…” You know what? I actually think, just so you’ll understand, I think that’s a message to the Iraqis, and Maliki (“My-lee-key” as Biden pronounces his name), because it’s a bit of a mixed message, but I think the mixed message, the part about “this is our last chance” is really a call to arms for the Iraqis. “Okay, gang. We’re not here forever here just to make you supportable and sustainable.” I actually think that’s a message just for them. But it’d be silly to let the Iraqis vote on this. The American people wouldn’t care about that because that’s not the focus here.

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