Victim of Success

Are we a victim of our own success in this terror war?

I 've heard secretary Rumsfeld refer to the fall of Baghdad as a "catastrophic success". As incredible as it seems the quick victory in Iraq left a huge whole in the war plan. There were problems with the support troops catching up with the front line. Sites that should have been secured were not. By the time the support personel arrived looting and other detrimental activities contributed to some of the chaos we still see today more than a year and a half later. Some would argue that what was a hole in our war plan was the effect of Saddam's war plan. I don't know if I'd go that far. I think Saddam's troops high-tailed it out of there shortly after they filled their underpants. Clearly some of the Iraqi weapons stockpiles fell into the insurgen... Um, I mean, terrorists hands. America, President Bush and the average Iraqi citizen have been paying the price ever since.

There has been no shortage of critics of the President's "Iraqi Adventure" here and abroad. Some criticism is valid and even warranted, war is a dirty unpredictable business, even a just war. By watching the nightly news or following the recent election you'd think that Iraq is one big chaotic mess. Even top secret CIA memos circulated by the New York Times claim that civil war is inevitable. That may be true, however, it may be fought with ballots and not bullets.

I have heard the liberals (who, by the way, are all for compassion and democracy and human rights unless it's on George W. Bushs' agenda)attempt to minimize any good news coming out of Iraq. They like to pooh pooh military personel who send e-mails or post blogs on the Internet claiming that we ARE being misled. They are not talking about Bush mis-leading the country into war, rather, we are being misled by the naysayers and the Bush-haters. I implore you to go to this website http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2004/12/good-news-from-iraq-part-16.html and read the good news - it's truly incredible. Chrenkoff has been regularly published on OpinionJournal.com, the op/ed arm of the Wall Street Journal. The detail and the optimism is stunning. So too is the blog known as Iraq The Model found here http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/ Again, these guys, these Iraqi's are absolutely giddy about the prospect of an election.

Still, the gloom and doomers and the pesimists won't relent. As a famous Senator from Kansas once said: you know it, I know it and the American people know it. These Bush-haters, these Cheney-haters, these Haliburton-haters will only find joy in America's defeat. They will not even admit that Afghanistan is a smashing success. They try to claim that al Qaeda is stronger than ever??? They try to poison the cooperation we have with Pakistan and all of our real allies in this war. They stand squarely beside the very nations and entities (read the UN) that propped up Saddam, thwarting the internationally imposed sanctions designed to rid Iraq of this sadistic dictator. And they try to claim the mantle of compassion and human rights advocacy. What poppycock.

This brings me, finally, to the point of my comments today. Are we the victim of our success? The answer is clearly, yes. I recently read that the democracy movement in the terrorist supporting nation of Iran is stalling. It's stalling because they are waiting for us. They figure: why should they stand up and be counted (and shot... er beheaded) when all they have to do is wait for the Americans to invade and throw out their repressors. They saw what we did in Afghanistan to right of them and Iraq to left of them. The Iraqi's did the same thing, enduring years of barbary and repression waiting for GI Joe. This is a problem. It was America, despite having no army, no navy, and no government declared independence from the most powerful nation on earth some 200 years ago. It's not that we didn't need or want help - it's that we did something about it. We didn't wait for France to do our bidding. I am positive that if the Iranian people confidently declared a split with the mullahs that nations like America and Britian, Austrailia and Poland, Italy and Japan would step up and help.

I recently saw a bumper sticker that dispalyed an American flag with the caption: "These colors don't run" and then right below that in smaller print "the world". I laughed, and said to myself, but someones got to do it. Volunteers, anyone? I thought so.