Three years ago I wrote this to greet the day that witnessed the liberation of Iraq as a fact that even Baghdad Bob could not conceal:
"Urban Blitzkrieg" (Posted April 9, 2003)
The regime in Baghdad is crumbling. Scattered resistance will not alter the fact that Baathists have lost Baghdad. Cries are going out that the casualties from our urban blitz are excessive and that world opinion, Arab opinion in particular, will not forgive us. The assumptions and conclusions are wrong.
We probed and raided and found Iraqi defenses lacking. We decided to bounce the city rather than lay siege. Would fewer Iraqis have died if we had sealed off the city? With death squads punishing disloyalty; and regime thugs hoarding all the food, water, and medicine? Would giving the thugs time to recover their will to fight after the pasting they took really have lowered casualties? Ours and theirs? Clearly, winning fast lowers casualties by ending the damn war. How this can be overlooked is beyond me.
As for the rest of the world not forgiving us? Are they to refuse "forgiveness" in the face of happy Iraqis? The Moslem world seems to have no problem forgiving the French, the Soviets, and the Russians for their brutal wars against Algerians, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. And they slaughtered Moslems for years. The Russians are still doing it. Indeed, the Moslem street seemed to forgive Iraqi slaughter of Iranians and Iraqis with ease.
The Moslem world will learn to see the bright side of ending Saddam's despotism. They may even draw hope that their own misery can be ended.
Honest to God, the stories of Iraqis finally free to express their feelings brought tears to my eyes. This war is not "just" one in our national security interests—it is just. And we did it in the face of moralists who claimed leaving Saddam's regime in power was the right and moral thing to do. In the face of the near universal disapproval of leaders of western religions. Against world opinion. And we did it with fewer casualties than I thought possible. In three weeks. America's determination to lead others who believed as we did is to be commended for sticking to the goal of overthrowing Saddam's regime. The coalition of the willing is also the coalition of the right. The coalition of doing the right thing, that is. I eagerly await the news of the planned anti-war protests this weekend.
The war is not over yet. The Saddamites may yet try a last stand in Tikrit. Some might yet launch chemical weapons in a last spasm of murder. Get the Patriots to Baghdad by all means. When the rulers think the people have "betrayed" them, the Saddam thugs could unleash chemicals on their favorite target—Iraqi civilians. The best quote I've read today? From this article:
"I'm 49, but I never lived a single day," said Yusuf Abed Kazim, a Baghdad imam who pounded the statue's pedestal with a sledgehammer. "Only now will I start living. That Saddam Hussein is a murderer and a criminal."
They can finally live.
This has been a good war.
Our enemies still fight us even as the Iraqi government and security forces make great progress in replacing the terror regime that we toppled three years ago:
"Despite much progress, much work remains," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. said in a joint statement. "The legitimate security forces must quell sectarian violence. Population centers must be secure to allow Iraq's new institutions to take root and businesses to flourish. Finally, the people must be able to trust their leadership."
Yes, freedom isn't free, as we should know. Eliminating the Baathist control of the state was a necessary task but not the only one required to build a new and free Iraq.
It was a good war. And though the enemy has resisted with more stength than I thought possible at the time due to money, ammunition, the ability to deny reality, and foreign jihadis, we are finally visibly winning the post-war struggle.
And if there is a silver lining for the Iraqis to winning such a struggle, it may be that the Iraqis will come to treasure Freedom Day as a day worthy of respecting the sacrifice they endured to end tyranny and embracing the freedom they bled to achieve. It may be a day to remember that Americans bled to free them. Had the Iraqis settled into peace and the forms of democracy without having to fight for them, it might have seemed like an American import that could be discarded when convenient.
And in fifty years, maybe Freedom Day will be marked with a three-day blow-out sale event--all over the Arab and Moslem worlds.
