president bush will never get credit for this in the media.
Yes we DID win militarily in Iraq.
Like we won militarily in WW1 and WW2.
And it was a military victory we really needed. Saddam was a destabilizing menace who needed to be eliminted for an entire host of valid reasons.
But like WW1 and WW2, we lost the peace. We replaced an anit-western Baathist Dictator with a popularly elected anti-American Islamist “Decmocracy” (as closely as that term can be defined in the Islamic mind). The average Iraqi has come away from this experience with very little fondness or appreciation for what we did. This should not be a surprise as they are Muslims and we are not.
The Saudis came out ahead as did the Gulf Oil states, which, aside from use of a limited area for military staging, contributed not one dollar, not one soldier and not one life to struggle which greatly benefitted their own security.
And once we pull out of Iraq militarliy, it will relapse into the kind of mindless, anarchic, violent society typical of any Islamic polity unless a strong dictator comes along and imposes a degree of military stability on it.
We’ve won virtually nothing in Iraq unless the government situation is straightened out. If that doesn’t happen, all we’ve done militarily will be for naught. Getting rid of Hussein will be but a minor footnote.
IMO, we should have kept more of an eye on Afghanistan and Pakistan.
We took the most secular state in the Middle East and a population who bore the American people no grudge—a potential ally that could anchor a new Western-neutral state, and in our haste to depose a nasty piece of work (that we helped arm) plunged said population into chaos that will outlive many of us. Just because your thumb is purple doesn’t mean you have democracy.
We wasted our brave soldiers, we wasted our money and as a country we sullied our good name. Why? Beacuse we could. Sad, sad waste because of the hubris of a few. If that is winning... well, enjoy the parade.