Consider that the Persian Gulf War is seen as a quick win, with the signal even being the ejection of the Iraqi army from Kuwait. While a clear battlefield victory, the Iraq War of 2003 showed that the victory of 1991 was but a ceasefire in the war. A continuing pro-American Iraq will show we truly won the war begun in August 1990. An Iraq that inspires democracy in other parts of the Arab world, even if it takes decades to bear fruit, will show that Iraq was a successful battle in the larger battle against Islamo-fascism. Time will tell.
But we do have evidence to prove we won the military victory in Iraq:
The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
How is this proof? Easy. Those on the left side of the aisle have a tendency, as a group, to disparage military service (certainly those on the right have a tendency, as a group, to disparage community organizing). These people on the left see our military personnel as victims. Victims of a society that left them no choice but to join the military; victims stuck in Iraq because they had no civilian options; and victims of war unlawfully waged.
As long as the soldiers were viewed as victims, liberals were willing to shower benefits on them. Recall the talk back when the Left-led attempt to retreat from Iraq was in full bloom. Then, no expense was too great for our poor victim soldiers sent to die in a Vietnam-on-the-Tigris.
But our troops turned out not to be defeated victims, but victorious soldiers, Marines, airmen, and sailors who won when the nuanced said they must fail. Stripped of victimhood, these victors who showed the Nuanced Americans they were wrong about Iraq became fair game for budget wars. And so the proposal to make them pay for the wounds they suffered while winning George W. Bush's hated war did not raise an eyebrow before it was released.
If this isn't proof enough, consider this:
See those Code Pink hags camera-whoring over the AIG bonuses? Code Pink used to protest the Iraq War. Now they're on to another cause. Perhaps they are just cleansing the pink palate before going on to protesting the Afghanistan War.
I'll still wait until June to determine if we won on November 27, 2008, but the signs of victory in Iraq continue to accumulate.
