Remember what the threats are: WMDs in the hands of Islamist terrorists. It is not just stockpiles of WMDs that we must eliminate, but the ongoing actions of rogue states (like Libya and Iran). The coalition invasion of Iraq has made it clear that there is a limit and an ultimate price to pay for dilly-dallying. We have created a powerful deterrence to which Libya has clearly succumbed. Over the next decades, as a result of our stern actions with Iraq, these rogue states know the danger of their weapons programs, collaborations with terrorists, dealings in the WMD black market.
The growing freedom in Iraq will also do what the neocons have counted on it doing, weaken the hold of Baathists in Syria and mullahs in Iran, etc., as those people demand freedoms.
This is all good. If we had known then what we seem to know now (actually I am not so sure we know it), that WMDs and WMD programs in Iraq were in total disarray, and not much of a threat, then possibly the CIC would have taken the next steps in the War on Terror somewhere else. And we would probably be involved in endless debates over that move. This enemy is shadowy and clever enough to play on our limited resolve no matter what we do.
So excellent, it bears repeating.
Still, what we have done with our sacrifice is more than just nudging freedom along for 25 million souls.
A lot more. If Iraq becomes any kind of stable democracy then the whole mideast/arab world changes. And IMO is the real reason we went into Iraq.
Absolutely. Consequences.
This war will not end with a tossing of the white flag or a formal treaty, it may well be over before any announcement or event signifying our enemy's capitulation. They will continue to talk long after they have lost the will to strike through fear of consequences if not the knowledge that our lack of resolve no longer invites them. Our enemy's recent abandonment of martyr missions for cowardly snatch-and-behead and remote detonation events is indication of weakening resolve ON THEIR PART, not just a strategic choice, IMHO.
Not one missive from Osama failed to mention the fact that their power lied in their willingness to die for the cause. The best indication that he is dead is that no one is imploring them to stop their current anger-inducing, instead of fear producing modus-operandi. We may have already defeated our foreign enemy if not for the Fifth column within, foolishly and dangerously posturing to revive them.