Less than 18 months after the fighting began, the United States has overthrown Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq, transferred power to a new Iraqi government that will strive to bring freedom to the nation, restored all vital services, kept the oilfields operating, gained the support of the overwhelming majority in a nation that had been indoctrinated to hate us, set up a pro-U.S. beachhead in the Middle East that is renouncing terrorism and did it all with less than 1,000 American casualties.
Yet some say we’re losing the war in Iraq. If this is losing, what would be winning?
Iraq will go down as one of the greatest military and foreign policy accomplishments in U.S. history. If the country is able to operate democratically and knock down the terrorists who are mortified of what it represents, the tide of pro-terror radicalization of the Islamic Arab world will have turned. If that happens (and it’s hardly a certainty), President Bush’s accomplishment in the Middle East will stand in history alongside President Reagan’s victory in the Cold War.
As I said, if this is defeat, please define what victory would have been.
Mark Belling
gmtoday.com |
