Iraq War: Second Anniversary
Outside The Beltway
Posted by James Joyner at 08:46
The Iraq War was launched on March 20, 2003, two years ago today. Saddam Hussein has been removed from power; democratic elections have been held in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Middle East; Libya's Khaddafy has given up his WMD programs; and Syria is pulling out of Lebanon. On the down side, 1500 plus American soldiers are dead, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent, and rifts in our alliances with Western Europe have been exposed and widened.
From the editorial board of the Boston Herald:
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On the anniversary of the Iraq invasion, it would be a pleasant surprise to see a bit of national pride expressed in all that has been accomplished in the Middle East in two short years. But bellyaching comes naturally to some folks so allow us to point out the obvious. The world is safer today than it was on March 20, 2003.
Just don't expect to read that on the editorial pages of the bellyacher-in-chief, The New York Times, which had this to say Friday: ``The invasion of Iraq. . . was a world-changing event. We can see many of the consequences already. The good ones so far exist mainly as hopes and are fewer than the bad ones, some of which are all too concrete.'' Groan, groan, grumble, grumble. Maybe these folks should spend some time reading their own newspaper to better understand that the Bush doctrine of spreading freedom in the Middle East to keep us safer at home is not just a policy of choice, but a policy of necessity.
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A debatable point, to be sure. The Middle East is undeniably freer than it was two years ago, though, which should help get at the "root causes" that the Left criticizes the Right from ignoring. The war has been costly, though, and the long term future of Iraq, let alone the region, is still unknown.
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