Through Through The Looking Glass;
The truth about Iraq is that, for all the tragedy and the loss, the U.S. military performed a miracle. After nearly seven years, a constitutional government endures in that country. It is too often forgotten that all 23 of the writs for war passed by the Congress in 2002 — from enforcing the Gulf I resolutions and stopping the destruction of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs, to preventing the Iraqi state promotion of terrorism, ending suicide bounties on the West Bank, and stopping Iraq from invading or attacking neighbors or trying to acquire WMD — were met and satisfied by the U.S. military. It is also too often forgotten that, as a result, Libya gave up its WMD program; Dr. Khan’s nuclear franchise was shut down; Syria left Lebanon; and American troops in Saudi Arabia, put there as protection against Saddam, were withdrawn.
Unfortuantely the passage of time is necessary to gain perspective on this. But thanks for the reminder of some of the positives that came out this.
Another thing forgotten in the passage of time, is that this blog remained steadfast in support of the Iraq war from beginning to end – reporting week after week on the under-reported positive developments – often to great derision. That made SDA rather unique in the Canadian blogosphere.
The only threat to victory in Iraq came from the opposition back home, and so long as Bush remained resolute (and it was clear he would) there was little doubt the US military could succeed in its major goals.
VDH as always, analyzes it correctly. And he’s as puzzled by Obama as so many others are.
Why is Obama so cold and indifferent when dealing with any situation other than the adulation of a campaign?
Why is Obama so disinterested and dismissive of foreign affairs?
My answer to the first is that Obama has no interest in governance or in America. He only wants the adulation and submission of crowds within a campaign.
He is, however, committed to inserting statism into America – not because he has himself thoroughly analyzed its nature, and the nature of its opposite (capitalism and democracy)..and come to a conclusion prefering statism. No, it’s the agenda of the Gang who run him – and, psychologically, Obama prefers statism because it disempowers the individual. He’s a supremacist not a president.
My answer to the second is that the left is embedded in cultural relativism and therefore, all nations are identical and they therefore have no interest in foreign relations.
Plus – Obama is anti-American and his foreign trips are usually apologies for the pre-Obama American era.
And then there was the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 which declared “…that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government” signed into law by….oh no…that can’t be….(gasp)….Bill Clinton.
Yes Louise, a lot of “facts on Iraq” were jammed down the memory hole.
I got banned from ABC’s (the American broadcaster) Iraq war discussion forum when I lost my cool and said something deemed too nasty to one of the other commenters. Luckily, that was just about the time that blogspot.com became available so I started my own.
It was also through that discussion forum that I learned about Iraq the Model and became a died in the wool reader and commenter there (among the first). The Fahdil brothers always filled in the blanks where the MSM failed and very often corrected their errors, too.
So when you say “rather” unique, you’re right. There was only one other one and it was mine.
When talking about “tragey and loss” it is necessary
to keep these in perspective. Total US losses in Iraq were
equivalent to about the first four (4) minutes at Cold Harbor,
and about the first day at Iwo Jima.
John Lewis at 11:07 AM, same thing can be said about Canada’s loses in Afghanistan as compared to WWII. I really weep for my country. Back in those days young men all across the country instantly signed up the minute Canada declared war, my dad among them, except he wasn’t very young. He was 33 years old.
God bless America.
God bless George Bush.
louise ?
my dad enlisted the very day war was declared….took the trolley out to new westminster and signed up with the Seaforth Highlanders.
was shot in ortona but made it back home in late ’44….spent 6 months as a patient in lady astor’s home which she used as a hospital for both world wars…
dad said that the only thing the bad guys understand is when you ‘flatten’ them…
near as i can make out he joined up for the money of course(not king and country but bread and butter) but also a sense of duty.
Correction: Lebanon is controlled by Syria
amen maz2….
without the Americans we are literally doomed…and i have every faith in Yankee sense and goodness…
There were a lot of heroes involved in this victory (stage 1 of many needed to win the war against islamofascism) none moreso than GWB.
It can be argued that never has a potus been more alone in making a decision than when he decided to go ahead with the surge – read Roves book to get the amazing details…
For BO to give him credit would be suicide for him with the daily kos crowd. To go against them would require the same courage GWB had to start the surge.
Sadly he does not have it.
Anybody else get the distinct sense Bam Bam made last night’s speech through (metaphorical) gritted teeth? It was either that, or he really didn’t give a flying rat’s ass about the topic.
In either case, the speech fell flat to this viewer. It did not seem genuine at all. My guess is that it was an attempt by his handlers to milk a positive foreign policy achievement for domestic political gain (despite the fact it was Bush and the GOP who did all the heavy lifting to make the Iraq operation the apparent success it has become).
I’m certain there will be a bump in his approval rating in the coming days, as the easily-swayed portion of the electorate give him high marks for the speech. However, like the post-SOTU bump earlier this year, it will be short lived.
maz2 and john begley; ditto; Cheers;
Not to be misunderestimated my self i’ll fouth Maz2
What a Victory !!
Each one of these claims, upon examination, would dissolve in a mass of qualifications —
For example the US stopped “the destruction of the […] Marsh Arabs” in about the same way that the west stopped the destruction of the European Jews. Furthermore, the process was started during the period that the US “tilted” towards Saddam and the final destruction was occasioned when BushONE-encouraged uprisings which he then failed to support.
// Only a few thousand of the nearly half million Marsh Arabs remain in the area. Most of the rest that can be accounted for are refugees living in other Shia areas in Iraq, or have emigrated to Iran, […] Many of the resettled Marsh Arabs have gained representation through the Iraqi Hizbullah organisation; others have become followers of Moqtada al-Sadr’s movement, through which they gained political control of Maysan Governorate. [Wikipedia] //
If anyone can tell me how to subdue a bully without clout, I’d like to hear it. We cave into bullies like Kim Jong-Il and Amadinejad and look where it’s gotten us. At least in Iraq there is one less bully, for whatever that is worth.
maz2 and john begley; ditto; Cheers;
Posted by: Mike Sr. at September 1, 2010 12:05 PM
Not to be misunderestimated my self i’ll fouth Maz2
Posted by: Agent Smith at September 1, 2010 1:40 PM
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Fifth!
Don’t worry Obama will reverse any gains.
Thank You Kate for holding steadfast. Especially as the MSM has basically taken the side of enemy.
I blame Pres. Bush (and Harper about Afghanistan) for not taking a more aggressive communication strategy to remind people why we are there and what we have accomplished. Part of war is morale and here our leaders have failed miserably. When they make the decision to send our troops in harms way they have a duty to support them fully. This includes winning the communications battle.
Bush should have had a team of hired guns to appear on every network, every show aggressively refuting the lies and misinformation. He should have spent as much money as needed on ads to keep reminding us what the war was all about. He should have demanded more sacrifices from the general public in a time of war instead of pretending that life could go on as normal for the average American. Bush’s lack of media savvy is one thing I do not miss.
(Sarah Palin may be dumb but she gets this more than any other Republican or Conservative.)