It’s been 20 years since Iraq invaded Kuwait. The invasion drew U.S. forces into Saudi Arabia, into Kuwait and ultimately deep into Iraq. That first war against Saddam Hussein—or if you prefer, the first phase of the war against Saddam—ended with the Iraqi dictator barely clinging to power and U.S. forces taking up long-term residence in the region. But that was only the beginning, as many of us warned at the time. U.S. forces would return to Iraq in 2003 to finish what was left undone. Seven years later, Saddam and his regime are gone, Iraq is healing and the U.S. military has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
In fact, the once-maligned surge—and the troops who executed it—have been so successful that even President Barack Obama has noticed. In an uncanny coincidence, Obama actually spoke of victory in Iraq on August 2, 2010—exactly 20 years after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
“While it was easy to be daunted by overwhelming challenges, the generation that has served in Iraq has overcome every test before them,” Obama declared. “When invasion gave way to insurgency, our troops persevered, block by block, city by city…When terrorists and militias plunged Iraq into sectarian war, our troops adapted and adjusted—restoring order and effectively defeating al Qaeda in Iraq on the battlefield.”
Praising “the sacrifices of our troops and their Iraqi partners,” Obama noted that “violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it’s been in years. And next month, we will change our military mission from combat to supporting and training Iraqi security forces. In fact, in many parts of the country, Iraqis have already taken the lead for security.”
This follows Vice President Joe Biden’s declaration in February that Iraq “could be one of the great achievements of this administration.”
The Obama team’s turnabout is no small matter. It pays to recall that Iraq, according to Obama, was the “dumb war,” and the surge was doomed to failure.
Whether Iraq is an achievement of the Obama-Biden administration or the Bush-Cheney administration—or of Generals David Petraeus and Ray Odierno—is a subject for another essay. Regardless, Americans should be thankful and proud of the achievement.
Of course, they haven’t heard much about the achievement from the morning paper or the evening news. That’s too bad, because the liberators of Iraq have just written an amazing chapter in American history. As Obama put it, “They have earned their place among the greatest of generations.”
The nonpartisan Brookings Institution offers some of the details:
- Insurgent attacks are down in every province, with some provinces reporting zero monthly attacks.
- With 34 of its 42 leaders killed or captured, al Qaeda in Mesopotamia has been eviscerated.
- At the height of Iraq’s postwar war, 904 Americans were killed in a single year (2007). So far in 2010, 39 have died—56 percent of them in non-hostile incidents.
- Iraqi civilian deaths are down from a ghastly monthly toll of nearly 4,000 in 2006 to 137.
- Attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops are down from 1,800 per week to a couple dozen per week, and mortar attacks have virtually ceased.
- Some 83,000 Iraqis, many of them former insurgents, have joined the Sons of Iraq to become part of the solution.
- There are now 664,000 Iraqi security forces trained and standing their posts.
- With the troops leading the way, the U.S. has built 140 new hospitals and health care centers, a new electrical grid, an expanded water-delivery system and scores of schools free from Baathist indoctrination.
- There were 833,000 telephone subscribers in Saddam’s Iraq; there are 20.8 million today—19.5 million of them cellular. There were 4,500 Internet users under Saddam; there are 1.6 million today.
- Almost six in 10—58 percent—of Iraqis say things are good or quite good; 84 percent say security is good in their area; 78 percent say crime protection is good in their area; 74 percent say freedom of movement is good in their area; 59 percent feel very safe in their neighborhood; 61 percent have confidence in the Iraqi government; 64 percent want Iraq to remain a democracy.
- Iraq rates fourth in the region in political freedom, just behind Israel, Lebanon and Morocco.
- Iraq’s GDP has grown from $20 billion in 2002 to $60.9 billion.
- Not coincidentally, Iraq is producing 2.41 million barrels of oil per day (almost at pre-2003 levels) and exporting 1.88 million barrels per day (above pre-2003 levels).
I say “pre-2003 levels” rather than “prewar levels” because the war with Iraq began long before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. But that, too, is a subject for another essay.
The long term prognosis is still far from certain. While one certainly hopes that Iraqis take this opportunity to go down a more liberal path to a civilized order, we have to remember that old habits die slowly … usually over generations. Islam is still a growing force in what was once a more secular nation. Tribalism still drives loyalty. Arab hatreds of “the other” and anti-Semitism haven’t disappeared.
My guess is that Obama still harbors hope that Iraq will fall apart after we leave. After all, when we left Vietnam it was looking good … when they needed us back two years later we were nowhere to be found.
The reason why we couldn't be found in Vietnam when they needed us is because after Nixon left the White House in disgrace, a Democratic Congress passed a law which didn't allow us to help South Vietnam after we promised them air support for as long as they needed it. The same result will happen in Iraq if we let it.
After Kuwait, George Bush Sr. let Saddam have helicopter gun ships that Saddam then used to effectively supress any internal uprising. Even George Bush Sr, admitted as much.
Whether or not Saddam’s removal, Iraq’s return to the family of nations, the Iraqi people’s freedom and Iraq’s stability were worth 4,412 American lives will be debated 20 years from now.
I hate to rain on your naive parade, but thanks to a Muslim infiltrator, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who managed to penetrate our beyond incompetent State Department and get appointed as the Ambassador to first Afghanistan and then subsequently to Iraq, Sharia law has been made the supreme authority in the constitution of Iraq. Hence, for all intents and purposes, the so-called democracy in Iraq in which you celebrate is in reality a Sharia state, and the last time I checked the only freedom that Sharia allows is the freedom for Muslims to become more devout slaves of Allah, and if you don’t believe me, then please take a look had the horrid oppression of Christian dhimmis living in Iraq.
Furthermore, no Sharia state is going to be anything other than a foe to the USA, Israel, and indeed every other infidel state in the world. Moreover, thanks to our very misguided generosity, they will also rejoin the global jihad against all unbelievers much stronger than otherwise. Hence, while you celebrate and glorify what you undoubtedly believe to be a major victory in Iraq, I repel in abject horror at your stupidity and naivety, as the fantasy-based mission in Iraq couldn’t have been more misguided or counterproductive to the long-term interest of the USA and the free world. Please lord save us from our own elected political leaders and their benefactors, as they are too blinded by political correctness to see the world as it really is.
Moreover, your kind of blind stupidity is the main reason I no longer support the Republican Party anymore, as it is oblivious to its own stupidity and has become a party comprised of mostly gullible useful idiots and other assorted liberals masquerading as conservatives.
Now for a more sobering assessment on the success of Iraq, please reference the following:
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/11…
In case you are wondering Alan, Diana West is also a conservative, but unlike you she is a true conservative not blinded by political correctness.
Sharia law has been made the supreme authority in the constitution of Iraq while the Ten Comandements are pushed to be law in American courthouses.
So what's the big deal?
Well, for one besides being a totalitarian theo-political ideology whose main goal is the subjugation of all unbelievers, other religions, and governments under Sharia, Islam, in stark contrast to faith based religions, is also a religion of submission that forbids the freedom of conscience under the pain of death. Hence, unlike in faith based religions where adherents are free to choose what it is they will believe and what it is they reject, and to freely leave the religion at will if they so choose, in Islam, on the other hand, a Muslim can’t question and reject the strictures of Islam as that is shirk, and shirk in Islam is a very serious offense punishable under the pain of death. Likewise, once a Muslim always a Muslim, as a Muslim can’t freely leave the religion, as murtaad (apostasy) in Islam is an offense that is also punishable under the pain of death.
Moreover, the Sharia in stark contrast to the 10 commandments mandates that a non-Muslim’s life is worth one quarter the life of a Muslim, that a non-Muslim’s house can’t be higher than a Muslim’s house, that he can’t proselytize or build new places of worship, and that he has to pay the Jizya or die on top of many other very harsh and oppressive prescribed edicts. In addition, per Sharia, a female’s life is worth half that of a male’s, her testimony in a court of law is worth half that of a male, and that her inheritance is worth one half that of a male. Meanwhile, a female can’t pick and choose whom she will marry, nor can she marry non-Muslims. Additionally, a female’s husband can beat her for disobedience, he can also divorce her by simply saying he repudiates the marriage, and the custody of the children involved automatically falls to the former husband after a certain age. Further, a female can’t leave the home without being covered and accompanied by a close male relative. Finally, Sharia imposes draconian punishments like amputations, beheadings, and stonings
Hence, while out of ignorance you may complain about the 10 commandments, because like a loon you have been inculcated to hate Christianity, the truth is the 10 commandments are perfectly compatible with our Judeo-Christian-Humanistic moral code and values, while Sharia, on the other hand, is not only antithetical to freedom but also to American ideals. Hence, your little moral equivalency is about as idiotic as it gets, but good try.
Many of you claims are valid. The West, especially the U.S. should adopt a conquer, unconditional surrender strategy, and declare Marshal Law. This will pacify enemies, and educate them regarding the price of attacking the West and her allies. Draconian, sure, but in the long run it will increase our security, and decrease the rampant tribalism we now witness in the Middle-East.
Ah, what a useless endeavor revisionist history is, sorry.
Sounds like a campaign ad for the Osama Regime. The enemy is biding his time – we have given him our withdrawal time table. As soon as the withdrawal starts, there will be an uptick in enemy activities and by the time all troops are withdrawn, the country will be in full-blown turmoil once again. Osama's cut and run is a cowardly way to end this war.
Claiming Iraq as the hussein administration's success only makes them look foolish and reminds us of how wrong they were. It also highlights their lack of resolve and idiotic self-defeating deadline in Afghanistan. The deadline reminds us that he would have chucked the troops and their families' sacrifices in Iraq for political expediency, and he will in Afghanistan.
Though future success is always uncertain (especially if the mad mullahs are allowed to develop nukes-establishing a shia revolutionary government like their own in Iraq is still high on the mad mullah's priority list), Iraq's future looks brighter than it ever has. For all its' faults, the Iraqi government is light years ahead of most of the region, and their economy is growing and developing much faster than their neighbors'. That's at least real progress in the right direction.
Oh c'mon!, how can we talk about victory when violence is spread all over Iraq?, the US soldiers almost hiding in their bunkers, that´s no victory!
So Obama is a Democratic neocons. Whoopeee. As an independent I say a pox on both your houses. The Iraq War was a war for oil. That is all. It was established by the desire to see a New Pearl Harbor, a desire placed on PNAC website in 2000. They got what they wanted. Our enemy is within. http://hubpages.com/hub/George-Bush-Legacy
You sure Gary. Wbya was ticked that Saddam tried to assassinate Bush senior, and this was revenge far more than a war for oil. Besides, we should take 10% of the Iraqi oil profits to pay our expenses.
Yes I am sure. The Taliban went to Texas in 1997. They were allies of the US. Unocal thought they were going to get a pipeline to the Caspian Sea and Halliburton and Bush 1 investments. Never happened. That gave motive to a desire for a new Pearl Harbor. The neocons are guilty of both motive and knowledge of a new Pearl Harbor, ie. 911.
And in 1998 the CEO of Chevron indicated his desire for reserves of Iraq. His director, Condi Rice, became Bush 2 most trusted advisor. She was an oil goddess. They all had the same aspirations, the oil in Iraq and the pipeline in Afghanistan.
Everything else, Aspacia, is a smoke screen. Now Obama is fighting these same neocon battles. No difference in party. They are all war criminals.
Gary,
I checked and you have valid claims regarding the Taliban and Rice.
However, I fear Obama's socialization far more the Wbya's Patriot Act etc. Remember, the Taliban aid and abet those who hit us on 9/11. This trumps any issue regarding oil/business manipulations, which have occurred for thousands of years, and I do mean thousands.
Do i condone these manipulations; NO. However, I am far more concerned regarding Islamists' very physical and vocal threats to us infidels.
As long as a country is ruled by Sharia Law, it is lost to the civilized world.
Obama did not support the troops or their mission in Iraq initially nor did he support the surge and both he and Hag Hillary Clinton ridiculed General Petreaus and did not support the surge that brought victory. Iraq is Bush's victory but Obama knows ahow to weazle in on praise and honor for the non participants well. Afghanistan is now totally Obama's war to win or lose not Bush's just as Vietnam was Nixon's after 1968 not Johnson's anymore, although the blame rests on the post Watergate Democratic Congress for the Vietnam loss by betraying South Vietnam by cutting of all aid in spite of a 1973 treaty made in Paris.
Our freedom and rights.
In the face of rising threats to their freedom and rights, Americans today are uncertain about what a proper foreign policy should be. This uncertainty arises from the philosophical influences of pragmatism and altruism, which have misguided American leaders for 50 years, and have made it difficult for Americans to evaluate their leaders and to evaluate their actions. As a result, Americans have failed to forthrightly confront rising threats, and have not properly supported allies – in particular, Israel. We have, as a result, emboldened and empowered the worst threat to the West in centuries as explained at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2010/05/w…