[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From the Powerline Blog:

March 17, 2006
JPod: "Iraq's Overlooked Triumph"

**********************************AN EXCERPT*********************************

John Podhoretz credits Iraq's "political class" with a little-appreciated victory in resisting calls for civil war over the past two weeks, and instead continuing to work out their inevitable conflicts through the political process. Podhoretz makes a fundamental point that some seem to forget:

[T]he members of Iraq's political class have chosen hope - chosen to fight their battles at the bargaining table rather than in the streets. By doing so, they are, in fact, offering an example of what democratic institutions are intended to do. They are supposed to replace armed conflict with political negotiation conducted by those who might otherwise take up weapons to get their way.

[new cruelty]

Thank you for posting this article.

[Siena Dreaming]

made the United States safer because we've tied down terrorist assets and distracted terrorist attention from the homeland. This was not the purpose of the war at the outset

On the contrary, I believe this was one of the goals at the outset.

[CyberAnt]

BTTT - for later reading

[PigRigger]

The members of Iraq's political class have chosen hope....

If in Iraq, hope for a better life for one's country and family is not chosen over death and chaos than the west is in for very violent times down the road.

Although I don't think the Iraqi campaign was exclusively to find out this this point, I do believe it was something we needed to find out.

May God Bless and Protect our Troops as they bring the fight to the enemies of Freedom....