An Opportunity with Iran

It can be hard to measure progress in the war on terror. How much progress has been made in Afghanistan when the Taliban no longer controls the government but has regrouped sufficiently to force a notable increase in fighting and casualties? Are we safer when Saddam Hussein is no longer paying suicide bombers but terrorists are materializing from across the Middle East to fight the American forces? Is America more secure or merely lucky when it has not been attacked but its strongest allies have?

Many, if not most, of the accomplishments in fighting terrorism and Islamist extremism are either ambiguous or unprecedented enough to make them susceptible to partisan spin. Success is too often subject to the eye of the beholder. But the reluctance of Israel’s known adversaries, countries that teach their children that Israel has no right to exist and that killing Jews is a holy cause, to condemn in unequivocal terms the Israeli response to its kidnapped soldiers suggests that a new day may be dawning.

well let's hope a new day is dawning but I have to admit, I AM plagued by those questions. Was it a good thing to epxlode the Middle East and get it done with now ...? Or did we cause the explosion? I mean I know the ideology has been around for centuries but this complete explsion - maybe it's a good thing that it's happened now before they'd infiltrated the west even more.

I see you are still hanging around spewing the nonsensical anti American talking points of the wacko Left. You and your cronies must of slept thur 09-11-01.

WE did not explode the Mideast. Time for people to give up their knee jerk emotion based political opinions formed in the 1960s and and deal with current reality.

The reality is their ARE people who want to kill you just because you are a Westerner. No amount of mouthing pro terrorist talking points or absurd Hate America propaganda is going to save you. They will kill you no matter what you say. You cannot ignore or appease people who think their god will reward them for killing you.

DEAL with the reality for once.

A lot of Arabs are afraid of the growing power of Iran. We do have an opportunity to use that fear to our advantage. It's a good thing we're in Iraq, where we have some real local leverage. Replacing Saddam's army with the coalition force was a very farsighted strategy of positioning American power into the world's most dangerous and unpredictable region. The critics say that Bush failed to predict all the consequences of that move. Which is true, because no one can predict exactly what happens in a war, especially this kind of war, especially in this kind of inflamed and insane region. But one thing is absolutely true: we have a stronger hand in the region than we had before. We have more power to influence events than if we weren't in Iraq. Thank you W. You have failed many tests of a Conservative Presidency (some say you aren't really a conservative at all), but the one thing you did right will be a boon to our nation and the world for decades to come: getting rid of Saddam and installing coalition forces in Iraq.

Hey Sam - thanks for this. I've been saying we went into Iraq because a) we could and b) we wanted to have a presence in the Middle East for Iran's lunacy. I'm glad to see you think that way - it makes me feel a bit more certain of my position. Of course, W never could have said it that way when we initially went in...public opinion would have been against it but as it was, it was solidly behind him. Go Bush!

We're not the only ones saying what a good move the Iraq war was for the US.

I hate to add this, and I wonder what you think of it:

I think Bush has made some mistakes in Iraq in that he's lost his original sense of mission and purpose and has started to listen to his generals too much. Presidents don't win wars by listening to generals (although there is a time and place for gathering advice, of course) but by telling the generals what to do. And I fear Bush has been weakening in his resolve, partly because some of the generals are wishy-washy on the subject of victory.

Bush's biggest fault, as I see it, in the war and in all his other policies, is that he wants the liberals to like him so he does things he think will earn him liberal goodie points. Of course they hate him no matter what he does, and all his striving for liberal goodie points adds up to exactly zero, but he keeps trying anyway.

In the long run, it doesn't matter. Because going into Iraq was such a genius move that even his latter-day lack of resolve and utter inability to tell it like it is when responding to the left-wing-traitor propaganda of the rats and the media can't diminish.

Bush is a good president who could have been a great president. If he was less like his father and more like himself (in his heart of hearts I know he's right), he would have been a great president.

Anyway, Bush is a good president who did one great thing: topple Saddam and put coalition troops in Iraq.

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