Iraq -- Victory or Defeat? (Oliver North)

Creators Syndicate ^ | December 16, 2011 | Oliver North

[jazusamo]

WASHINGTON — They are coming home. For the first time since March 19, 2003, there are no U.S. combat or combat support troops in Iraq. There is still a contingent of U.S. Marines guarding the biggest American embassy in the world and the largest military attache's office at any diplomatic mission. But there is no doubt in anyone's mind — ally or enemy — that the war in Iraq is over. The only uncertainty now: Who won? Short answer: America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines — and the American people whose sons and daughters served in Iraq. Though our commander in chief cannot utter the word "victory," it is. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — in Baghdad for a ceremonial "casing of the colors" for U.S. Forces-Iraq — came close when he said of all who served during eight years and eight months of war: "You came to this 'Land Between the Rivers' again and again and again. You did not know whether you'd return to your loved ones. ... Your sacrifice has helped the Iraqi people to cast tyranny aside and to offer hope for prosperity and peace to this country's future generations." All that is true. Young Americans wearing flak jackets, helmets, flight suits and combat boots not only vanquished Saddam Hussein's brutal, repressive army and defeated radical Islamist insurgents — both Sunni and Shiite — but also became the protectors of Muslim women and children. Over the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom, nearly 1.5 million American volunteers donned a uniform and served in one of the most difficult and dangerous places on earth. More than 4,480 of our finest died, and more than 32,000 were wounded, in the long process of liberating and securing Iraq. It was the courage, tenacity, skill and compassion of U.S. troops that motivated more than 750,000 Iraqis to volunteer for their own army, navy, air force, police and intelligence services. Today's Iraqi security forces are the most effective pro-American institution in Mesopotamia. They have been trained and equipped by Americans to protect their country from internal threats while respecting the human rights of their countrymen. They are fast becoming a valued counterpoise to radical Islamist extremism and are essential allies in a part of the world where we need friends. Of equal importance, none of Iraq's military leaders wants to become part of a new Persian empire. Is there still violence in Iraq? Certainly. But it is far safer to be a civilian in Iraq today than it is in Mexico. Would we — and the Iraqi people — be better off if the incredibly incompetent Obama administration had negotiated a status of forces agreement with Baghdad so U.S. troops could continue to train with and mentor their counterparts? Of course. But the ongoing debate by U.S. politicians and pundits over what could have and should have been done differently or better in the corridors of power in Washington or Baghdad obscures a most important fact. In Iraq, American valor, blood and treasure secured something unique in a part of the world that never has had a freely elected representative government. Much is being said and written about Iranian intentions, aggression and influence in the region — and how it can be deterred without U.S. "boots on the ground." American interests in Iraq are now the exclusive purview of Ambassador James Jeffrey and a contractor-supported staff of more than 16,000. Among them, our defense attache, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., head of the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq. His agency now oversees the continued training of host nation security forces and the delivery of the more than $13 billion worth of military equipment that Iraq's government is contracted to purchase from the U.S. None of this is good news for the ayatollahs in Tehran. And none of it would have come to pass but for the force of American arms borne by the best and bravest of this generation. The parents, siblings, spouses, children and loved ones of the Americans who fell in Iraq and of those who were wounded should be told by the commander in chief that their sacrifice was not in vain. He ought to be the one to say that they fought a long and difficult campaign not for gold or oil or colonial conquest, but to offer others the hope of freedom. In so doing, they made our country safer and reminded us all that freedom is not free. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul in this Christmas season: They fought the good fight. They finished the race. They kept the faith. Thank them for their courage and service. They won.

[jazusamo]

OLIVER NORTH PING!

Please Freepmail me to be added to the Ollie North ping list.

[Leo Carpathian]

Barak Hussein cleared another country for Muslim Brotherhood to establish Caliphate

[dominic flandry]

Talk about wishful thinking. If he truly believes the Iraqi military is going to oppose Iran, then he is delusional.

[jazusamo]

I’m afraid there’s a real possibility that could happen.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

We cannot yet say who won in Iraq. The United States won all the major battles, but the ultimate control of Iraq still remains in question. We could be like the British who won all the battles, but lost the war.

[Venturer]

Ollie has a lot more faith in the Iraqui’s than I do. In a year they will be back the way they were when we left.

I hope I am wrong.

[smoothsailing]

"They fought the good fight. They finished the race. They kept the faith. Thank them for their courage and service. They won."

Amen.

[D Rider]

Like Vietnam, we had the war won and then we surrendered. Both surrenders were the cause of Rats.

[jazusamo]

Agreed Smooth, they most certainly did.

I second your Amen!

[rockinqsranch]

Thanks for the ping jaz. Too ticked at the Leftists to comment.

[NonValueAdded]

Ollie, I hope and pray that you are correct but like the man said, "I got a funny feeling about this ..."

[Psalm 144]

“Talk about wishful thinking.”

What else can he say? The truth is too bitter.

[ImpBill]

One word comes to mind regarding your post.

Vietnam!

[Allegra]

I second your Amen!

And I third it.

[21twelve]

My son happened in while I was watching the news and they were showing a ceremony of some of our folks coming home and the reporter talked about the final date for leaving Iraq.

My son just shook his head and said “What a mistake.”

He’s sixteen.

[Billthedrill]

Victory is properly measured in the attainment of strategic objectives, and by that measure this was a victory. For those who want a grand parade down Main Street with flags flying and bands playing, that is a fantasy. The anti-American Left that has captured the media would never have admitted that in any case.

What we accomplished in Iraq was (1) the extirpation of an expansionist threat toward oil supplies in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and its transport through the Gulf; and (2) the creation of a killing ground on which militant Islam found that the best it had to offer was, despite a hurricane of hot air, inadequate to the task of regional hegemony much less international conquest.

In my personal estimation it bought the West twenty years against a threat that was actively enabled by elements within its own culture who are spoiled, bored, and enamored of overthrow without the slightest notion that what might follow afterward would be no secular, socialist utopia, but a theocratic totalitarian state. One-third of that time has already passed. Militant Islam has suffered a major military defeat and an even more major psychological one. It has lost its momentum, it is struggling for relevance and fighting within itself for dominance among its constituent factions. In strategic terms that is a victory.

I have little patience for those who would represent it otherwise, who would call it a defeat because it suits their ideological agenda. It is nothing of the sort. We still can squander this victory away, but that does not make it less of a victory.

[raygun]

It seems as if your boy is ‘counting cost’ at 16 y/o.

I’m not holding that against him, but it sounds as if that’s what he’s doing.

I’m uncertain if its time to ‘count the cost’.

[D-fendr]

Well done, Bill.

[21twelve]

I’m not sure what you mean by “counting cost”. I’m guessing it means “what a waste of our troops lives - and for what?”

If so, he didn’t mean it like that. He meant it was a mistake we shouldn’t be leaving Iraq yet as it will just become another muslim rathole and be our enemy in a short while. (An I hope he is wrong and Ollie is right).

(And perhaps it will ALWAYS be a muslim rathole, but it would be nice if it was a bit more to our liking.)

Granted, we went in and took care of Saddam and his real threat to us and our allies. So perhaps that is victory enough. But it would just be nice if we don’t have to go back there in another 10 or 20 years to “finish” it.

I wonder what the U.S. has promised the Iraqi forces in terms of supplies, etc. that Obama will stop sending in an effort to “balance the budget”.