THERE is a reason Iraq has almost disappeared as an election issue.
Here it is: The battle is actually over. Iraq has been won.
I know this will seem to many of you an insane claim. Ridiculous!
After all, haven't you read countless stories that Iraq is a "disaster", turned by a "civil war" into a "killing field"?
Didn't Labor leader Kevin Rudd, in one of his few campaign references to Iraq, say it was the "greatest ... national security policy disaster that our country has seen since Vietnam"?
You have. And you have been misled.
In the past, I've argued that we turned back the major efforts by the Baathists, jihadis, and Sadrists to take control of Iraq. I figured we'd won and "only" knocking out the remaining forces that continued to kill without hope of winning was the job. Which is why I never got upset that Vice President Cheney said a couple years ago that the enemy was in its last throes. Indeed they were. And still are. They are dying hard but they are dying. And Bolt does clarify his meaning of winning exactly as I have:
How angry so many are to hear good news from Iraq. And how suspicious is their reaction. Don't we all actually wish for Iraq to be democratic, safe and free from tyranny?
But, they'll splutter, but, but, but...
I can hear them already.
But the bloodshed in Iraq is terrible! Call that victory?
And, yes, the killings are ghastly. Iraq is nowhere near safe, and our help is still needed to make it so. Yet the violence now does not threaten the country or its government.
But it has been difficult for people to accept the idea that in a winning war the enemy would continue to stubbornly (and stupidly) kill thousands of innocent civilians. So I've not made the victory claim.
But we are winning. I'm not shy about claiming that. And we have been winning at a greater or lesser pace since March 2003. So I guess Bolt isn't so much bolder than in what we've claimed--indeed I've claimed this much longer--but he is bolder in how he phrases his opinion. I don't rule out our enemies could slow down our pace with something unexpected. Heck, maybe the Iranians will overtly invade Iraq in a desperate bid to win. You never can tell what they're thinking.
If you haven't realized that we are winning in Iraq, it is because you have been misled. Misled by a press and punditry class that has virtually no understanding of history or warfare.
Good grief people, who have you been reading to get your news on Iraq? Film critics and Enron economists?
