Posted on 10/24/2005 10:40:05 AM PDT by Tolik
Last week’s approval of the Iraqi constitution saw 10 million people freely vote in the Arab world’s first democracy. The jihadists cannot be entirely defeated without such a political solution. Yet Iraq’s democratic voters would never even have had an opportunity without American soldiers, whose sacrifices offered a chance of reform.
...Yet for almost two and half years of constant combat, the American military’s mission has been misrepresented or caricatured. Some said soldiers were fighting to secure oil, although since the invasion oil prices have skyrocketed and the Iraqis’ petroleum reserves have come under their own transparent control.
Others alleged the real reason for military operations was Halliburton’s profit or Israel’s security. But what our soldiers accomplished better revealed their reasons for being there: no more no-fly zones; no more Kurdish or Shiite state massacres; no more attacks on Kuwait, Iran, Israel or Saudi Arabia ...— and now a democracy in place of a terror state.
...Politics guides much of the media’s portrayal of our soldiers. ... there are almost 2,000 mothers of fallen Americans, yet the public recognizes the name only of Cindy Sheehan (“We are waging nuclear war in Iraq”).
...The obstacles to protecting the democracy are almost surreal: Too much force threatens to alienate wavering Iraqis whose support is critical for the new constitutional government; too little and civilians might well join the terrorists’ side in expectation that it would win. We hear mostly of how much we’ve done wrong in Iraq, but last week we should have been better reminded of just how much we have done right — and only because of our mostly unheralded soldiers who gave freedom to 26 million without it in the hope that this might just work.
(Excerpt) Read more at victorhanson.com ...
Let me know if you want in or out.
Links: FR Index of his articles: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson
His website: http://victorhanson.com/ NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp
Good article. To the point. I salute our military in what they have been able to accomplish. And shame be heaped upon the politcal detractors, that only dishonor themselves. As GWB has repeated over and over again, we will do what is required then leave. Period. Simple words for a simple minded world.
One measure of just how far we've come in Iraq is how hard the MSM and the other opponents of the intervention are having to work to find something to carp about. That so many of these are eagerly awaiting our 2000th casualty is revealing over and above the fact that it is disgusting.
The drumbeat now seems to have shifted - it shifts about twice a week - to the upcoming constitution in that country and how inadequate it is in the eyes of those whose best efforts have been to see that it never existed in the first place. That so many of those inveterate bellyachers have moved from "it's doomed to failure" to a comical "the success isn't sufficient" tells us a very great deal about the real progress in that country.
I couldn't believe Soderberg would air such malevolent sentiments without hesitation. Then their comrades have the gall to whine that it's just dissent when they give aid and comfort to our enemies.
Fortunately, other folks besides VDH and so called crazed neocons were listening.
Jon Stewart smells it, too Wash. Times
Jon Stewart smells it, too thread
Last week’s approval of the Iraqi constitution saw 10 million people freely vote in the Arab world’s first democracy.
Point of order: The vote is still being counted.
wow.
remarkably transparent and open admission of true motives, for a Donk.
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