Oh, and while we are judging victory in Iraq, I should have mentioned something so basic that I skipped right over it: crushing al Qaeda's attempt to destroy Iraq led to the collapse of Islamist terrorism's popularity in the Moslem world.
The September 11 attacks were too satisfying for many Moslems who saw "their boys" finally sticking it to the huge United States. But as the Moslem world got to see Islamic terrorists slaughtering Moslems in Iraq and even in their own countries, the appeal of that terrorism declined a whole lot.
For all the anti-war side's claims that we were distracted by Iraq from fighting al Qaeda, it was al Qaeda itself that chose Iraq as their main battleground rather than the streets of our cities or even Afghanistan. And we beat them there.
Remember how the jihadis used to taunt us that we were only able to hit them with cruise missiles but if they ever got the chance to fight us on the ground they'd clean our clocks? They got that chance. Now they don't taunt us like that any more.
About Me
- Brian J. Dunn
- I live and write in Ann Arbor, Michigan. University of Michigan AB and MA from Eastern Michigan University. One term in the Michigan Army National Guard. Former American history instructor and retired nonpartisan research analyst. I write on Blogger and Substack. Various military and private journals have published my occasional articles on military subjects. See "My Published Works" on the TDR web version or under the mobile version drop-down menu for citations and links.
