First of all Saddam hosted terrorists. Iraq was a familiar place for many terrorists seeking safety, training, or support. Under Saddam, Iraq was a haven for terrorists.
The idea that we are just training terrorists in Iraq is idiocy. For people who also like to say that our war in Iraq is decimating our military, it seems odd to claim that the few foreign jihadis who survive their trip to Iraq are creating highly trained cadres of terrorists who will plague us for years to come. Terrorists are invading Iraq, but we are killing them in large numbers. For all the terrorists who arrive every day, the numbers in Iraq do not go up because they die quickly. This is not haven. It is a killing ground for the terrorists and few survive. They may enter Iraq thinking American troops are unable to fight but they find out otherwise very quickly. Many who make it home go with the knowledge that they were not brave martyrs but scared witless at our skillful and deadly soldiers who do not run from battle but run to the fight to kill the jihadis.
Victor Hanson puts it well:
We forget that once war breaks out, things usually get far worse before they get better. We should remember that 1943, after we had entered World War II, was a far bloodier year than 1938, when the world left Hitler alone. Similarly, 2005 may have brought more open violence in Iraq than was visible during Saddam's less publicized killings of 2002. So it is when extremists are confronted rather than appeased. But unlike the time before the invasion, when we patrolled Iraq's skies while Saddam butchered his own with impunity below, there is now a hopeful future for Iraq.
It is true that foreign terrorists are flocking into the country, the way they earlier crossed the Pakistani border into Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban, and that this makes the short-term task of securing the country far more difficult. But again, just as there were more Nazis and fascists out in the open in 1941 than before the war, so too there were almost none left by 1946. If we continue to defeat the jihadists in Iraq -- and the untold story of this war is that the U.S. military has performed brilliantly in killing and jailing tens of thousands of them -- their cause will be discredited by the stick of military defeat and the carrot of genuine political freedom.
Yes, terrorists are flocking into Iraq. They have invaded a newly free Iraq to kill democracy in its birth. Just as Germans flocked into Italy in 1943 after we invaded Italy in World War II when Italy switched sides. Before we invaded, there were few Germans in Italy. After we invaded there were lots of Germans and the fight was hard and brutal before we drove the invaders out. So did we cause Italy to become a haven for Nazis?
Hardly. The enemies existed already in 1943 and in 2003. We simply opened a new front where the enemy chose to stand and fight. Germany invaded Italy in 1943 in order to prevent Italy from switching sides cleanly and joining the Allies to destroy Nazism. The jihadis invaded Iraq in 2003 to prevent Iraq from joining the Coalition to destroy Islamism.
Fighting back does not make things worse. It paves the way for final victory. But we should not be surprised that enemies who liked fighting us when we just lobbed cruise missiles on occasion will continue to fight when we engage them decisively. They still want to win. But we should be strong enough mentally to pound our enemies to make sure that their decision to fight it out leaves our enemies broken and dead on the field of battle. For if we retreat and content ourselves with cruise missile spasms, the enemy will continue fighting us and one day they will use a nuclear weapon and make 9-11 look like a good day.
And it should be noted that we're doing a lot better getting Iraqis in the fight against the jihadis and Baathist today than we did getting Italians into the fight against the Nazis in World War II.
Victory will be ours if we stand and fight. Our enemy has invaded Iraq to forestall their own defeat. Victory in the war should be the only thing we will settle for. I just don't understand why some Americans are so eager for our defeat. Or who think victory is so unimportant.
V
