Victor Davis Hanson: So What Happened to Iraq?
[Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and editor, most recently, of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome. © 2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc.]
Six years ago, the conventional wisdom was that Ayad Allawi, then prime minister of the appointed Iraqi interim government, was a puppet of the United States.
Last month, though, the Allawi-led Iraqiya alliance won, by a narrow margin, more parliamentary seats than any other coalition in national elections — and he may become the country’s next prime minister.
The secular Allawi successfully campaigned on the message of curbing religious interference in government — countering the often-argued charge that the U.S. has created a radical Islamic republic in Iraq....
Yes, there is still terrorist violence in Iraq — especially recently, as the leadership of the country’s next government remains in doubt. And, yes, there are still around 130,000 American soldiers in Iraq. But in the first three months of 2010, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq was about equal to those murdered in Fresno, Calif.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s democracy has for some time now proven itself independent from the U.S. — and that old antiwar accusation that we entered the war to control Iraqi oil was false....
Many on the left no longer oppose the Bush-Petraeus plan of slow, graduated withdrawal from Iraq, as this strategy is now sanctioned by President Obama. In the words of Vice President Biden, Iraq may well become one of the Obama administration’s “greatest achievements.”...
We see all of this mostly in hindsight. Dire assertions about Iraq did not come to pass. Antiwar passion cooled once war-critic Barack Obama was no longer a presidential candidate but became president — and commander-in-chief.
And, most importantly, a successful democracy finally did arise after the fall of Saddam.
Read entire article at National Review
Six years ago, the conventional wisdom was that Ayad Allawi, then prime minister of the appointed Iraqi interim government, was a puppet of the United States.
Last month, though, the Allawi-led Iraqiya alliance won, by a narrow margin, more parliamentary seats than any other coalition in national elections — and he may become the country’s next prime minister.
The secular Allawi successfully campaigned on the message of curbing religious interference in government — countering the often-argued charge that the U.S. has created a radical Islamic republic in Iraq....
Yes, there is still terrorist violence in Iraq — especially recently, as the leadership of the country’s next government remains in doubt. And, yes, there are still around 130,000 American soldiers in Iraq. But in the first three months of 2010, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq was about equal to those murdered in Fresno, Calif.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s democracy has for some time now proven itself independent from the U.S. — and that old antiwar accusation that we entered the war to control Iraqi oil was false....
Many on the left no longer oppose the Bush-Petraeus plan of slow, graduated withdrawal from Iraq, as this strategy is now sanctioned by President Obama. In the words of Vice President Biden, Iraq may well become one of the Obama administration’s “greatest achievements.”...
We see all of this mostly in hindsight. Dire assertions about Iraq did not come to pass. Antiwar passion cooled once war-critic Barack Obama was no longer a presidential candidate but became president — and commander-in-chief.
And, most importantly, a successful democracy finally did arise after the fall of Saddam.