Pssst….come here…guess what?  We’re winning the War in Iraq.  How do I know?  Because no one is talking about it… not the newspapers, not the nightly news, not the Democrats, not even the deranged Bush bashers. The silence is so loud, it’s deafening.   Funny how that works, huh?  The loudmouths wouldn’t shut up about the “quagmire” in Iraq when it suited their anti-Bush agenda, but now that the strategy is working and democracy is flourishing in the Middle East, not a peep.  Am I surprised?  No.  The writing was on the wall.  They had positioned themselves in such a way that success in Iraq was actually a bad thing because it would mean that they were dead wrong….again. 

Just consider that Senator Harry Reid (D: NV), the Senate Majority Leader, proclaimed months ago that the war was “lost” and that Senator Hillary Clinton (D:NY) told General David Patreaus that in order to believe the good news he was reporting in Iraq, she would have to “willfully suspend disbelief”.  Translated from Clinton-speak, that means that he is a “liar”.  When things weren’t going well (as they always will in a war), the media made Iraq its number one story.  Now that things are better, nobody is talking about Iraq.  Does that seem backwards to anyone else?   Apparently, it’s only news worthy when our enemies win.  Kind of makes you wonder who these people are rooting for doesn’t it?

I am especially pleased at our success in Iraq.  Not just because…you know…I AM AN AMERICAN and I WANT US TO WIN OUR WARS, but because I’ve been a supporter of President George W. Bush’s proactive strategy in the War on Terror.  Read this excerpt from his address to Joint Congress after 9-11:

“We will direct every resource at our command -- every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence, and every necessary weapon of war -- to the destruction and to the defeat of the global terror network.  Now, this war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion.  It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.  Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes.  Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have ever seen.  It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success.  We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or no rest.   And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.  Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.”

This became known as the “Bush Doctrine”.  He stood before us when we needed a leader, and he lead.  He told us exactly what he intended to do.  We stood up and applauded.  We were unified.  We were behind him.  Then, like a true leader, he went out and executed his strategy.  He hasn’t wavered.  We have.

Iraq became a front in the War on Terror for many reasons.  Of course, the one that gets the most attention is that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.  We know this because he used them on his own people, and intelligence agencies from around the world confirmed it.  He defied several U.N. resolutions to account for these weapons and removed inspectors from his country.   He was clearly a sponsor of terrorism: funding, training and providing safe haven for terrorist operatives from around the world.   That included Al-Qaeda.  Not only did taking him out make us safer, but what better person to make an example of?  He brashly opposed us and openly violated the Bush Doctrine.  It  had to be done in order to show other terrorist sponsors that we were serious. Soon after by the way, Libya surrendered their weapons program because their regime didn’t want to suffer the same fate.  

There were other reasons for invading Iraq.  We needed to create a battlefield to fight Al-Qaeda.  Killing terrorists becomes a lot easier when you know where they are.  We needed a base of operations to conduct further tactical and intelligence operations throughout the Middle East.  Also, there’s Oil.  Let’s face it.  We need it to maintain our way of life, and Iraq has it.  Finally, there’s democracy.  By establishing a democracy in Iraq, we will show would-be terrorists that there is an alternative to blowing yourself up, and the rest of the Middle East will see what true freedom is.  

Now, it did take us some time to understand the insurgency, and for President Bush to find the right General (it took Lincoln 3 years to find Grant), but this is war, and war rarely goes according to script.  The insurgency was largely made up of foreign Al-Qaeda members that poured into the country and local militia members fighting against change.  The fierceness of the insurgency only validates Bush’s strategy.  They are willing to blow themselves up to get us out of Iraq.  That alone should tell you how critical victory there is.

Under the leadership of General David Patreaus, our troops have effectively eliminated Al-Qaeda in Iraq and quelled a violent insurgency designed to break our will and send us home.  For a while, it looked like they might achieve their goal.   Many lost faith in the mission while Al-Qaeda and the insurgents became emboldened by the negative opinion polls and public criticism from our own politicians.   What they didn’t count on was the courage of our troops, and the resolve of President George W. Bush.  He has had the strength to withstand the unprecedented, personal attacks and do what he said he would because he believes it's right.  I’ve said from the beginning: George W. Bush is not a great politician, but he is a great leader, and now that all the loud noise has been turned off, maybe we’ll notice.

....read more from Todd A. Carges