Iraq launched an air strike on a gathering of Islamic State fighters in neighboring Syria, killing members of the hardline militant group who planned cross-border attacks, its military said on Thursday.
F-16 fighter jets bombed and destroyed an "operations room" where the militants were meeting.
Iraqi forces attacked Islamist terrorists. Ponder that.
It wasn't so long ago that Iraq invaded Iran and introduced threats to oil exports from the Persian Gulf as collateral damage in that 8-year war.
It wasn't so long ago that Iraq invaded Kuwait.
It wasn't so long ago that Iraq supported terrorists and imported jihadis from across the Arab world to work for Saddam.
It wasn't so long ago that Iraq was gassing Iranians and Kurds, pursuing nukes and missiles, and otherwise destabilizing the Middle East.
It wasn't so long ago that Iraq attempted to assassinate an American president (Bush 41).
And that's not to mention the horror show of Saddam's oppression and murder of Iraqis to maintain the brutal rule of Saddam and his psychotic sons waiting in the wings to carry on the family business.
Is it any wonder we went to war with Iraq under Bush 43 in 2003 with broad bipartisan Congressional support?
Is it any wonder that Obama entered Iraq War 2.0 in 2014 despite his opposition to the Iraq War in order to redress his mistake of pulling out in 2011 and defending what we achieved by destroying the Saddam regime?
The evidence of Iraq as an ally fighting at our side against terrorists rather than an enemy is just astounding when you consider the history, but unremarked as the herd goes along with the mooing sounds that America lost the "fiasco" of the Iraq War.
Iraq isn't a perfect ally, but in many ways it is far better than Pakistan or even NATO ally Turkey. And it sure does more than Germany to fight jihadis.
Let's not abandon Iraq after the defeat of ISIL's caliphate. We need to help track down and finish off ISIL. We need to strengthen rule of law in Iraq to foster democracy that will reduce the appeal of jihad to Sunnis in Iraq, enable the Kurds to come to peaceful terms with the Iraqi state, and allow Iraq to resist Iranian influence.
Don't overlook defending our victory in Iraq by the bizarre method of failing to recognize a victory.
