What most America’s do not realize is that we actually won the war in Iraq. Sadaam was removed and brought to justice. A democratically elected government now rules in his stead. The threat of nuclear or biological weapons development in Iraq was neutralized.
When President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. He never once uttered the words ‘mission accomplished,’ yet the MSM has made certain two words on a banner overshadowed the very important 1,829 words the president did speak that day. The president indicated that the United States and the coalition forces had prevailed “in the Battle of Iraq,” known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. What is forgotten is that the speech that day indicated the beginning of a new SECOND war: the work of securing and reconstructing the country, specifically
We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We’re bringing order to parts of that country that remain dangerous. We’re pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime, who will be held to account for their crimes. We’ve begun the search for hidden chemical and biological weapons and already know of hundreds of sites that will be investigated. We’re helping to rebuild Iraq, where the dictator built palaces for himself, instead of hospitals and schools. And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by, and for the Iraqi people.
The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done. Then we will leave, and we will leave behind a free Iraq.
The president went on to say, “The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 — and still goes on.” Later he said, “Our mission continues.”
I recently spoke with Victor Davis Hanson who told me that America’s anti-Iraq War mood finds its impetus in a lack of clairity on this second phase of the war:
The president did not articulate, I don’t think very well, what the stakes were: that he won a war, a brilliant war, and that all of the gloom and doomers who said we’d lose 5,000 to 10,000 dead we’re completely wrong, and now we’re not in the same war but in a very different second war which we can’t vacate because we’ve done that in the past. You need to tell the American people, “This isn’t new!” We tried the Republican/Conservative Realpolitik, cozying up with the House of Saud, not going to Bahgdad, No-Fly zones, dealing with Musharraf. And then we did the Democratic appeasement, overlooking the first World Trade Center, the East African bombing, the USS Cole, and both of those were wrong. This is a corrective to almost everything we’ve tried in the past.
The president has to realize you can’t just assert you’re for freedom, you have to explain why freedom – it’s a very difficult thing to impart by force, we’ve done it in the past, it’s been difficult, but it will work. And rather than just assert, “We’re going to win; we’re going to give them freedom,” he needs to explain just how difficult it is. I think all along we should have had far less “Mission Accomplished” and much more “We had a bad choice and we had a worse choice.” There are never any good alternatives in the Middle East, so don’t get your hopes up too high, but we can still win this thing and we can win it at historically low cost, if you look back in the long story of war this country’s put up with.
If indeed things are turning favorably in Iraq, why has that message not reached the American people? Especially with the proliferation of the blogosphere and alternatives to old media? Victor Davis Hanson:
I don’t think any of us have been able to disrupt the narrative of the IED and the suicide vest, so every time we try to enunciate how hard it is to bring a constitutional government to the ancient Caliphe, and if you were to be successful, the wonderful dividends that would start to disrupt this old nexus between dictatorships and theocracies, and how important it is. If you look at the long view of history, that we are doing it amazingly well, even though it has taken four years. This is a country, after all, that lost 12,000 dead in six weeks at Okinawa. And we haven’t made as many military mistakes (in Iraq) as this country has made in places like Hedgerows or Iwo Jima. But that has to be asserted every day, because we have some of the most brilliant minds in this country, National Public Radio, PBS, Washington Post, New York Times, you know these people: architects of the Democratic Party who really don’t believe that a) we can win, and b) even more disturbingly, that we should be able to win. They have a view of America that people will like us, they travel to Europe a lot, they will like us, they will praise us if we sort of retreat within our shores, invest our security and future with the United Nations, the World Court of the Hague, and that people in the world, such as radical Islamacists or China, these are really not that dangerous a group, but they’ve been sort of exaggerated by warmongers, industrial-military complex types in the United States. That narrative has sort of taken over Iraq as the news became only the violence and never that they’ve had a successful election, how big the Iraqi army is becoming, and how many good things we’re doing in that country compared to what, let’s say China is doing in the Sudan or what Russia did in Czechnya or what the Europeans are doing by selling almost anything the Iranian theocracy wants. The administration has not been able to get that message to the American people, that the United States of all the major contenders in the world, has the most humane and principled foreign policy.
Jeff
I forgot to remind you of something;
“My sin not in part but the whole
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord O’ my soul!”
And your’s also Jeff.
If Horatio Spafford could take a break and pen these words after loosing his four daughters, surely we can also.
These matters will dim in the light of things to come.
Jeff
Let me ask a rhetorical question.
Is God omnipotent or impudent?
I have found that if I am able to butt out long enough, I’m in a better position to receive what He has for me. Many hard learned lessons have brought me to this conclusion. I hope you can receive this in the intended spirit.
God bless you today Jeff.
Don
I guess my point is, we hear chatter from the right and from the left. The right says Bush is AOK, the left says he is satan’s brother. None of us are over there in Iraq and the fact of the matter is there is most likely spin coming from both sides. I was thinking yesterday. I wonder if all the right wing shows, Paul Edwards, Rush, Hugh Hewitt etc would be for the war if Al Gore had won in 2000 and the same scenario took place over the last 7 years? My guess is probably not. Do we simply follow a party line because they supposedly support our values, or do we investigate things? Do we listen to the right, the left and also the alternative media like the internet and public radio? I try to take all media into prespective and make a decision as to what makes sense? When I see this post that claims that the War is going better then what the left in this country would want us to think, I don’t accept it because it comes from someone I trust, I step back and look at a fact that a person like Ron Paul who was always against the war is the #1 supporter from the military. This tells me that the people over there that know more than any right or left source will tell us supports his message of getting out of Iraq. The 2nd and 4th are Obama and Clinton who both say they want out of the war as well.
Ron Paul 26.23%
Barack Obama 24.02%
John McCain 18.31%
Hillary Clinton 11.08%
We need to be smarter with these things, stop going to only one source for News. Better yet stop going to only sources that agree with your personal views, you may find that the info you are getting is not the whole story.
War is an ugly thing, I have found that the right would have us to believe that if we oppose it then we are somehow lumped in with the crazy leftist, pro abortion, homsexual marriage crowd. I actually bought that, but now I realize that there is a middle ground that can oppose unjustified war and still be a conservative.
Just a few items for food for thought. I still love Paul as a brother in the Lord but we couldn’t disagree more on his support of this administration and its policies.
I did not say to be apathetic, just enjoy the “joy of our salvation’ for a moment. Then charge hell with a bucket of water. He really does have control of it all!
Don,
I have looked in the Bible and tried to find where we were commanded to be apathetic. Sorry bro, can’t find it.
Jeff
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, for at least a moment, and let all this other diversion sit still. There will be plenty of time for it later.
Your Brother in Christ
My opinion on the issue is that I don’t agree with a preemptive war strategy, the result of which has been disastrous. There is a reason why the #1 support of the military is Ron Paul. These guys know what is going on over there and they support his Anti war message. Anti-War is not Anti-American, Anti Bush policies is also not Anti-American or Anti-Christian. I am Pro-American as it gets and if we don’t stop this current path our future could be very grim. I am as right wing as it gets, I personally don’t see right wing policies in the current administration. You are free to disagree, if you are a Christian you have to ask if Jesus would advocate War that did not pose an immanent threat on us directly.
As I was driving in to work this morning as usual, I was communing with the Lord. I happened to have an Alan Jackson CD in and as I listened to “Turn your eyes upon Jesus” the thought occurred to me, that we get so wrapped up in everyday living that the simple truth of this great song is overlooked by many of us.
Today, what really matters?
Is He still the same God that parted the Red Sea?
Is He still the same one who stopped the mouths of angry lions?
Is He still the same one who told Satan, “get out”?
Is He still the one who stands by the fields of harvest and sees a prodigal coming home?
Are the fatted calves run out?
Are there no more “best robes” left?
Are there no more shoes from our Father?
Has He run out of the family rings for our fingers?
Is there no more reason to make merry?
Have the words “this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found”, run dry?
Is He still not the same Yesterday, Today and Forever?
As I listened this morning to that still small voice speaking to my heart, He spoke these words to me; “remember when you came down that road? I was there, was I not? Did I forsake thee or leave thee? Did you not find a fountain filled with blood? Was there room at the cross for you also? Are you enjoying your robe of righteousness, your family ring, the table I prepared for you in the midst of your enemies, the inheritance with my Son? Are you still looking up for the redemption that draweth neigh? Behold I still am coming quickly!
Most all else in my mind dissolved.
“O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
I ask you, What really matters?
May the light of His glory and grace guide all our ways today!
Greetings Paul! This is wonderfully communicated. The only criticism I have of President Bush, of whom I support wholeheartedly, was when he said, after 9-11, “Go back to your normal lives.” Our nation should have gone to a war footing, called up our reserves and proceeded to secure our nation from the threat of global jihadism as well as the axis of evil. Our national will at the time would have supported a WWII type effort against these nations that had the potential of threatening America and her national interests (Iraq) as well as those who harbor terrorists (Iran, Syria). This threat to our national security will never go away until both of those enemies are dealt with. At least we have found our U.S. Grant in General Petreaus and hopefully can produce a second victory in Iraq, but I sadly believe that because our nation has returned to pre-9/11 normalcy, Iraq will be the end of the Bush doctrine of preemption. Thanks for your thoughts.