The reasons for the Iraq war
The "anti-war" protesters
The war of 2003
The genocidal monster Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. Iraq was liberated from his rule in 2003, thanks to the US and its allies. The genocidal monster was deposed and executed, thanks to the US and its allies. His regime was destroyed.
2003 was a great year for the world, a moment of hope for all peoples suffering under tyrannies across the world.
Tragically, though, the forces of evil (totalitarianism, jihad and genocide) fought back after 2003. They refused to stop killing. They refused to allow the Iraqis live in peace and freedom.
The western left, which opposed the liberation of Iraq from Saddam, said that Iraq should be abandoned to these people. They said, in effect, that if evil fights back, evil should win.
The western left won the day. Their man Obama took office in Jan 2009. Obama then abandoned Iraq to the jihad and ISIS.
WMD was one of the main reasons for the Iraq war of 2003, but far from the only one.
Here are the reasons for the war:
Saddam was a genocidal dictator who extinguished human freedom in Iraq and tortured and executed hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
This to me is the only reason I need. I support a war against regimes like this any time, for more or less any reason. If a democracy wants to depose a tyranny like Saddam's Iraq, well who cares what the reason is. It's a good thing. Even if the aim was to seize all of Iraq's oil for profit, I would still support it.
Saddam did not keep his tyranny at home, but was a threat to his neighbours, including: (a) half the world's oil supply, and: (b) the democracy of Israel. Israel was strongly in favour of ending this threat, and rightly so.
Saddam was a state sponsor of terrorism for decades. After 9/11, this had to end.
State Sponsors of Terrorism (official US list since 1979).
Saddam Hussein's Support for International Terrorism (Bush White House)
Saddam's Iraq and Support for Terrorism (9/11 Commission)
Terrorism Havens: Iraq (CFR)
Iraq-Terrorism Connection (discoverthenetworks.org)
Iraq was believed to have an advanced WMD program (in particular nuclear weapons).
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Iraq certainly used to have such a program.
Operation Opera, the bombing by Israel of Iraq's nuclear weapons program in 1981.
It seems that, as at 2003, Iraq's nuclear weapons program was actually inactive. Why didn't Saddam let us know?
The amazing answer is suggested in: Hussein Was Sure Of Own Survival, Steve Coll, November 3, 2003. "Hussein was afraid to lose face with his Arab neighbors. Hussein concluded .. that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries paid him deference because they feared he had weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was unwilling to reveal that his cupboard was essentially bare"
Revealed: Saddam's WMD plan, The Scotsman, 10 Oct 2004. Saddam needed his supposed WMD program as a deterrent: "So he told only a few senior military chiefs - and not until December 2002 - that he was actually telling the truth: he really didn't have any WMD. He had even bluffed his own ministers and intelligence service, which perhaps makes the mistakes of British and American intelligence more understandable."
Saddam, the Bomb and Me, 26 Sept 2004, by the head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear centrifuge program, has a slightly different angle. It says that Saddam himself didn't know what a bad state his nuclear weapons program was in. "Sort of like the emperor with no clothes, he fooled himself into believing he was armed and dangerous. But unlike that fairy-tale ruler, Saddam Hussein fooled the rest of the world as well."
Even if Iraq (as at 2003) had no active nuclear weapons program, it would have started again as soon as it got a chance. Best to end the regime.
A final reason, that did not work, was trying to change the Middle East by spreading democracy and human rights. Something had to be done after 9/11 to change the dynamic, and this was the neo-con dream, that Arabs might embrace freedom.
It did not work. Some Iraqis were receptive, but not enough. Iraq turned out to be stony soil. It was a brave and noble effort, but Iraq largely rejected the great opportunity it was given. The neo-con dream that Arabs might want to be free is dead. Some Arabs want to be free. But most do not.
Why I supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Democrat quotes on Iraq before the Iraq War.
Al Gore on Iraq, 1992.
The "anti-war" demos of Feb 2003 (before the invasion of Iraq)
The "anti-war" protesters say: Don't do anything. Never do anything. Leave tyrants to do what they like. And then we are innocent. We have no blood on our hands. It's seductive. I just don't know if it is moral.
Government opposition to the Iraq War. France and Germany refused to support America and Britain.
"A rolling river of political incontinence" - The February 15, 2003 protest.
In Britain and Ireland, the greatest political demonstrations in decades took place in 2003. To call for democracy in the suffering world that does not have it? To call for an end to fascist and communist dictators? No. They marched to protect a genocidal fascist. Shame on them. Shame on everybody who took part in those marches. Shame on them for spitting in the face of the brave democrats in Iraq and the Arab world.
Don't you know your left from your right? Part II, Nick Cohen, January 21, 2007, expresses my incredulity at these demos in Feb 2003:
"On 15 February 2003, about a million liberal-minded people marched through London to oppose the overthrow of a fascist regime. ... Saddam Hussein was delighted, and ordered Iraqi television to show the global day of action to its captive audience. ... these were history's largest co-ordinated demonstrations .. millions, maybe tens of millions, had marched to keep a fascist regime in power."
"Jose Ramos-Horta, the leader of the struggle for the freedom of East Timor, noticed that at none of the demonstrations in hundreds of cities did you see banners or hear speeches denouncing Saddam Hussein. If this was 'the left' on the march, it was the new left of the 21st century, which had abandoned old notions of camaraderie and internationalism in favour of opposition to the capricious American hegemony. They didn't support fascism, but they didn't oppose it either, and their silence boded ill for the future."
"Ian McEwan caught the almost frivolous mood: 'All this happiness on display is suspect. Everyone is thrilled to be together out on the streets - people are hugging themselves, it seems, as well as each other. If they think - and they could be right - that continued torture and summary executions, ethnic cleansing and occasional genocide are preferable to an invasion, they should be sombre in their view.'"
Iraqi dissidents in favour of war here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
Where Are The Iraqi "Peaceniks"? by Jeff Jacoby
"Reverend Jackson, let me speak!" by Amir Taheri - An Iraqi dissident watches the march: "These prosperous, peaceful and fat Europeans are marching in support of evil incarnate." He said that, watching the march, he felt Nazism was "alive and well and flexing its muscles in Hyde Park."
The Iraqi Prospect Organisation "wanted to persuade people that the anti-war movement did not speak for the Iraqis or Kurdish people. After all, their Iraqi relatives were praying for the invasion to happen."
Marching for terror by Mark Steyn - "One day, not long from now, when Iraq is free, they will despise those who marched to keep them in hell."
Dear marcher, please answer a few questions by David Aaronovitch - ".. Finally, what are you going to do when you are told - as one day you will be - that while you were demonstrating against an allied invasion, and being applauded by friends and Iraqi officials, many of the people of Iraq were hoping, hope against hope, that no one was listening to you?"
The marchers are doing Saddam's work by David Pryce-Jones - "Behind the demonstrators' slogans lies the assumption that Arabs should be left alone: they don't mind being brutalised, tortured and murdered by a fascist thug like Saddam. Where they come from, it is the natural order of things. That line of thought is nonsense. More than that - it is racist nonsense."
Freedom and Dignity: Iraqis get a taste (extended version titled Long Distance Arabs) - Amir Taheri on Liberation Day just 2 months later: "Here is the first lesson to draw from the liberation of Baghdad: Iraqis, and Arabs in general, are no different from other human beings. They, too, prefer to live in freedom and dignity."
In the US, the "anti-war" protests were organised by International ANSWER / The Workers World Party / Party for Socialism and Liberation. This group, with links to the Soviet Union's KGB, supported Stalin, supported the Soviet crushing of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, supported Mao's democide and the Cultural Revolution, supported China's killing of the Tiananmen Square protesters, supported Libya, supported the butcher Milosevic, supported (and still supports) Castro, and today supports (not just supports appeasement with, but actually supports!) the genocidal tyranny of North Korea.
At the time of these demos, it actually supported (not just supported appeasement with, but actually supported) Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Yes, that's right. The "anti-war" protests were organised by people who openly support Saddam.
Marching With Stalinists by Michael Kelly - "This is whom the left now marches with. The left marches with the Stalinists. The left marches with those who would maintain in power the leading oppressors of humanity in the world."
Read more about these sick western fascists here.
Behind the Placards by David Corn
March for tyranny by Andrew Bolt
ANSWER's support for the killing of Iranian dissidents
ANSWER supports (not just understands, but actually supports!) the killing of American troops by the Islamofascist and Baath Party holdouts
The 21st Century's skinheads - Michael J. Totten on the new western fascists like ANSWER.
Commies! Photos of real (not rhetorical) communists at "anti-war" protests.
"World Can't Wait" are also of course communists. See here.
The lifelong campaigner for tyrants and against human rights, Ramsey Clark.
Ramsey Clark defends Saddam, describing him as "reserved, quiet, thoughtful and dignified". Also here.
Ramsey Clark defends the slaughter of the village of Dujail - "He (Saddam) had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt."
The slaughter of Dujail, 1982
See more commentary.
The communist National Lawyers Guild was also involved in "anti-war" protests.
These tyranny lovers openly support the genocide state of North Korea.
North Korean Lawyers Guild by Shawn Macomber
The lifelong tyranny-supporter and opponent of human rights, Lynne Stewart, hardly needs refuting. Her words speak for themselves.
Speech to National Lawyers Guild, 2003, openly supports genocidal dictators: "And modern heroes, dare I mention? Ho and Mao and Lenin, Fidel and Nelson Mandela and John Brown, Che Guevara who reminds us "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love." Our quests like theirs are to shake the very foundations of the continents."
Interview (also here), 2002, openly supports democidal communist tyranny: "I don't have any problem with Mao or Stalin or the Vietnamese leaders or certainly Fidel locking up people they see as dangerous."
Lynne Stewart was convicted of providing material support to terrorists 2005.
Saddam paid for "anti-war" demos in the Arab world, and he paid journalists and politicians throughout the Arab world and Europe.
Satire of anti-war marches. From Protest Warrior.
Peace and non-violence (separate page)
The liberation of 2003
Wrong again. Wrong before. The "peace" marches were wrong, wrong, wrong. Proved wrong, proved immoral, within weeks of happening.
The Iraqi people wanted liberation. The Iraqi people supported the war. They yearned for the freedom we live in.
The liberation was a brilliant success. In only a few weeks, Saddam's barbaric regime was destroyed. There were few innocent casualties. It was a triumph by any historical standard. Iraq was liberated. Uday and Qusay were killed. Saddam was captured and executed. Every dictator in the world was nervous. 2003 was truly a year of hope.
The "human shields"
A "human shield" discovers what Iraq is like
Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start"
I Was Wrong! by Ken Joseph, Jr
"What in the world do you mean?" I asked. "How could you not want peace?" "We don't want peace. We want the war to come" he continued.
.. telling them of progress in the talks at the United Nations on working some sort of compromise with Iraq I was welcomed not with joy but anger. "No, there is no other way! We want the war! It is the only way he will get out of our lives"
Here I had been demonstrating against the war thinking I had been doing it for the very people I was here now with and yet I had not ever bothered to ask them what they wanted.
"We are not afraid of the American bombing. They will bomb carefully and not purposely target the people. What we are afraid of is Saddam Hussein and what he and the Baath Party will do when the war begins."
In relation to that last point, about the Iraqi people trusting America, Iraq: A Moral Reckoning by Charles Krauthammer points out that the Iraqi people voted with their feet: "one of the more unnoticed facts of this war was the absence of refugees - the Iraqi people's silent homage to their trust [in the Allies]"
More stories of the human shield idiots (and here) - "The Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb the government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam. All Iraqi people want this war."
Christopher Hitchens, 2006, asks why the human shields aren't in Iraq when they are really needed - to protect ordinary Iraqis from the resistance: "What happened to the human shields? ... would not now be the ideal time for those who hate war to go to Iraq and stand outside the mosques, hospitals, schools, and women's centers that are daily subjected to murderous assaults?"
Richard Waghorne: "What they recognise and reveal in their actions, ... is that unlike the United States, the insurgency in Iraq will pay not one moment's notice to how many human shields they do or do not kill."
The first liberated Iraqis - "You just arrived. You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave."
What took them so long? The UN, France, and the "anti-war" youth in the west, that's what.
The week of the fall of Iraq, as seen by:
Andrew Sullivan (see quote)
These include a compilation of the moronic predictions and opinion of so many, including:
The left were wrong
They were wrong by Andrew Bolt, on the failure of the left in Australia. - "This is the Vietnam of the Left."
On the outside by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. - Doesn't it matter when people are proved wrong? Surely it counts for something??
- "The left has been wrong for so long that no knowledgeable observer even expects its pontificators to be right. ... Yet after all these decades of erroneous pronouncements, the American left remains both intellectually and morally superior to you and me. The American left is the only intellectual force in Western history to gain moral superiority by being wrong."
Can We Talk?, Eric Alterman, The Nation, April 3, 2003, is a masterpiece of failed leftist prediction:
He sneers at Richard Perle: "Did Perle, for instance, genuinely believe "support for Saddam, including within his military organization, will collapse at the first whiff of gunpowder"?"
He sneers at Paul Wolfowitz: "Is Wolfowitz really so ignorant of history as to believe the Iraqis would welcome us as "their hoped-for liberators"?"
He says the war is going badly: "Rapidly shifting conventional wisdom has already begun to blame Bush advisers' "bum advice," according to one Washington Post report, for the war's decidedly not-so-cakewalk-like character."
Later that week (!), support for Saddam, including within his military organization, collapsed and his regime fell. Opinion polls showed the majority of Iraqis welcoming the US as their hoped-for liberators, as many Iraqi bloggers explain, such as the eloquent Husayn Uthman.
The western media were wrong
Out of the "Quagmire" by J. Michael Waller - "Daddy, are we there yet?" - The hysterical, panicking, extremely short-term, deeply ignorant (and constantly wrong) coverage of the Iraq War in the western media. Once again, just like Afghanistan, the military were a far more trustworthy guide to what was going on and what would happen next than journalists were.
See No Freedom, Hear No Freedom, Speak No Freedom, Greg Yardley, April 10, 2003 - The silence of the anti-war media on Liberation Day.
The BBC were wrong
During the Iraq War, the BBC were nicknamed the "Baathist Broadcasting Corporation" by pro-war bloggers. Like RTE in Ireland, the taxpayer in Britain is forced to pay for a centre-left, anti-American, anti-Israeli station.
The Disgrace of the BBC by Josh Chafetz
Government opposition to the Iraq War. France and Germany led the opposition to the Iraq war among the western democracies. Russia and China also opposed the war.
Stupor, shame and repentance by Marc De Scitivaux - France wakes up with a hangover after the liberation, after its disgraceful, shameful support for Saddam. This is the most shameful event in French history since Vichy.
It's not really about Saddam by Mark Steyn - France doesn't give a damn about Iraq or the Iraqi people.
Alain Hertoghe's book (also here) on the French media's support for Saddam in the war.
Alain Hertoghe describes Le Monde as "Saddam's Gazette". - "It gave a picture from Baghdad of Saddam's units perfectly controlling the situation. ... Then when the Americans made their move, we read how they were massacring the Iraqis. The explanation for the collapse was that Saddam's fedayeen had so much compassion for the population that they stopped fighting."
France's policy is still sharply criticized by Iraqis, Remy Ourdan, Le Monde, 18 Mar 2004 - on how, oddly enough, Iraqis aren't grateful to the French for their opposition to the war and their long loyal support for Saddam. "With the exception of former Ba'athist officials, it is practically impossible to find anyone who supports Paris' position in the crisis."
"Chirac and de Villepin must understand that no Iraqi finds their position courageous... What did France do to help Iraq free itself from the dictator"
"Once the war was over, we saw that France's promises to help the Iraqi people were only wind."
"We wanted to be friends with the French, but they supported Chirac who defended Saddam to the end. And I still haven't understood why."
And an Iraqi on the disaster of Madrid: "Pacifist and anti-American Europe is celebrating the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq as if this were a great victory! We Iraqis think that France's and Germany's refusal to help us and the announced departure of Spain are a catastrophe."
Iraqi prime minister slams delusions of "pacifist" French, Hala Jaber, September 05, 2004 - about France's outraged complaints all of a sudden when two French journalists get kidnapped by the fascists (that France has long supported) in Iraq:
"a newspaper regarded as a mouthpiece for Allawi's party .. said President Jaques Chirac must share responsibility for the kidnappings because he had opposed international initiatives aimed at restoring Iraq's security."
"A second editorial complained that France was proud not to have helped topple the regime of Saddam Hussein and had remained silent while "terrorist attacks were being carried out against the Iraqi people and infrastructure ... Now France can't sit still. Its envoys are everywhere, including in Iraq, calling on all Iraqis to intervene to free their citizens"."
I don't think Iraqis will forget France's treachery anytime soon.
The Arab world was wrong
The Arab world's shameful record on Iraq:
Beirut, Baghdad by Fouad Ajami, August 25, 2003, on the utter failure of the Arab intellectuals. - "We needn't apologize to the other Arabs about our presence there, and our aims for it. The custodians of Arab power, and the vast majority of the Arab political class, never saw or named the terrible cruelties of Saddam. A political culture that averts its gaze from mass graves and works itself into self-righteous hysteria over a foreign presence in an Arab country is a culture that has turned its back on political reason."
Long Distance Arabs by Amir Taheri (version also here) - Is the Arab world humiliated by the liberation of Iraq? "If they are, so what? They should jump in a river. Today, Iraq is free"
What's Wrong with the Arab World? by Jonah Goldberg - The Arab world's appalling, and incredibly ignorant, response to the war in Iraq.
Silence on Saddam's mass graves
Arab Columnists on the Killing Fields of Iraq, MEMRI, June 9, 2003
"Many Arabs sinned ... against the Iraqi people when they stood by its executioners, when they underestimated the savagery with which the [Iraqi] regime treated its own people, when they opened up their media to anyone defending this ghoulish regime, and when they refused to treat others' opinions tolerantly. It is about time that some of them stand, with a minimum of self-respect, and apologize to the Iraqis...!"
"These plastic bags in the mass graves contained bullet-riddled skulls, [bodies] wrapped in rags, [tied] in ropes, [or] dressed in worn pieces of clothing ... Ropes still tied a mother's bones to her infant's, and a father's to his son"
Arab TV (separate page)
Iraq is free, Apr 2003
Almost nobody in Iraq was stupid enough to die for Saddam. The Iraqi army, sensibly, went home. The Iraqi people, sensibly, refused to listen to the moronic opinions of the Arab world. The Iraqi people, sensibly, refused to resist. Why resist your liberators? Why resist the people who are going to kill the tyrant?
An Iraqi celebrates 'return to the world' after 21 years hiding from Saddam - "If I met Mr Bush, I would say 'thank you, thank you, you are a good human, you returned me from the dead'"
Iraqi mother hides sons from Saddam for 23 years - The left tried to keep them in hell. America let them out.
"Give my peace to Mr. Bush. I love him. He saved us from the criminal."
Baghdad parents name baby boy after Bush - "I tell you all Iraqis hated Saddam's regime. It was only George Bush who liberated us, without him it wouldn't have happened. If he hadn't done it the sons of Saddam would have ruled us for years. He saved us from Saddam and that's why we named our son after him"
The Marsh Arabs are free (no thanks to Michael D. Higgins). - "Everyone is so happy. We are starting to live like we used to, not the way Saddam wanted us to live."
"I feel as if I have been born again. Iraq was a prison above ground and a mass grave beneath it." - "For the first time in almost half a century, Iraq has no executions, no political prisoners, no torture and almost no limits on freedom of expression. ... There are almost 200 newspapers and magazines that require no police permit and suffer no censorship"
Iraqi writer Hamid Ali Alkifaey - "No Iraqi can forget the moment when Saddam's statue was pulled down by Iraqis, assisted by US forces, in Baghdad. .. Iraq is now a free country thanks to the courage of George Bush and Tony Blair, and the US and British people who backed them."
Ahmed Chalabi thinks that someday France and Germany ".. will see their way clear to apologizing to the Iraqi people"
Thank You: An Iraqi poet celebrates the dictator's fall by Awad Nasir - "Those [US and British troops] who died to liberate our country are heroes in their own lands." [Not to the freaks of the left they're not!] "For us they will be martyrs and heroes. ... The U.S. and its allies took grave risks and showed exceptional courage in standing up against powers such as France and Russia .. who tried their desperate best to prolong Saddam's rule. ... [The US and Britain] should not leave Iraq until they are asked to do so by a freely elected Iraqi regime in Baghdad. In the meantime Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin, Kofi Annan and others have no authority to speak on behalf of my people."
The Iraqi Prospect Organisation on the sickness of the "anti-war" left - "I find it absolutely incredible that the anti-war people are now calling for the coalition to leave straight away. Nobody in Iraq wants that. The opinion polls show it's just 13 per cent. Don't they care about the Iraqi people and what they want at all?"
Interview with the highest Shia religious authority in North America (an Iraqi exile)
"We are grateful to the allied forces for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make in destroying the regime of Saddam Hussein and freeing Iraq. ... people are so happy not to have to fear being kidnapped, tortured or disappearing from one day to the next. They now have complete religious freedom and can express themselves as they want to."
He dismisses the "resistance" as Baathists and Islamofascists. He is opposed to the US leaving quickly.
And on the occasional sermons in Iraq against America he is scathing: "The Iraqis have had enough of these meaningless speeches on nationalism, Arab unity and the struggle against the West, responsible for all our misfortunes. We have had enough of this kind of rhetoric for thirty years. It has lead us to where we are now. The great majority of Shias are Iraqis who no longer want to hear these hollow words. They want good relations with their neighbors, with the West and a better life for their children."
After being forced to listen to weeks of panicking ignoramuses in the Irish and British media, it is a breath of cold reality to read Victor Davis Hanson's columns for March and April 2003 and understand what happened during the Iraq war, and why the Allies won.
The war was fast, easy and a stunning success. The Iraq war is "The greatest triumph of American policy since the end of the Cold War" in 1989. And the greatest military victory of the West since the end of World War Two in 1945.
The Anglo-American alliance wins again by Martin Walker - "Their war plan vindicated, their critics at least briefly silenced, the two English-speaking leaders who had defied so much of world opinion and conventional wisdom .... Iraq, the Middle East and - if they so choose - a new world order is now for Bush and Blair to define. The world's enduring, and only reliable military alliance has done it again. Or rather, the world's two best militaries delivered the outcome"
The liberation of Iraq started on July 4, 1776 by William Rees-Mogg - Democracy is on the march.
Cakewalk In Iraq, February 13, 2002 - His predictions, long before the war. "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk. Let me give simple, responsible reasons: (1) It was a cakewalk last time; (2) they've become much weaker; (3) we've become much stronger; and (4) now we're playing for keeps. ... Gordon and O'Hanlon say we must not "assume that Hussein will quickly fall." I think that's just what is likely to happen."
"Cakewalk" Revisited, April 10, 2003 - After liberation. "Granted, I'm an incurable optimist, but even I could never have envisioned the coalition controlling the enemy capital within three weeks"
So far, the War on Islamism is the most successful major war in US history - Victor Davis Hanson writing after Iraq. - ".. our present offensives going into the third year of fighting have cost far fewer lives than the first 25 months of any major conflict in American history - the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, or World War II. ... fewer American soldiers have been killed in two years of fighting than often were lost in one week in Vietnam"
Why the free world wins wars:
Why The West Has Won (And Will) by Victor Davis Hanson, The American Spectator (see archive copy)
Why Arabs Lose Wars by Norvell B. De Atkine, American Diplomacy
Arabs at War, Kenneth M. Pollack - Why Arabs lose. - Again, it's not bad races. It's bad ideas. If they adopted western ideas, they would win. (Of course, if they adopted western ideas, they would not be fighting the west. They would be allies of the west.)
Lessons of the War by Victor Davis Hanson, notes how the Iraqi army and security forces were very good at killing and torturing unarmed civilians. They were very good at shooting helpless, unarmed, civilian men, women and children. But when faced with a real army, they were annihilated in three weeks.
Western decadence beats faith, hope and terrorism by Anatole Kaletsky
Triumph of the free by Andrew Bolt - The brutal 30 year tyranny of Iraq did not fall in 8 years (8 years!) of war with the fellow tyranny of Iran, but fell in 3 weeks (3 weeks!) when it came up against the men and women of the free world.
We win because we are free. We are rich because we are free. We dominate the world because we are free. Why is the world too stupid to see this? Why don't they embrace freedom too?
Iraq - The war after 2003 (separate page)
One standard for Bush, another for Hollande:
Here, in Jan 2013, France liberates Mali from jihadist terrorists.
Hollande did exactly what Chirac condemned Bush for in 2003.
France ignored the UN, invaded, and were welcomed as liberators.
Charles Johnson (back when he was good) on the liberation of Iraq:
"This is a truly historic moment, LGF readers. To the naked protesters, the Hollywood whiners, the Indymedia haters, the BBC and CNN and MSNBC and Al Jazeera and Arab News: This moment is IN OUR NAME. Those who sought to keep the Iraqi people in their living hell, who stood in the way of their liberation, and insisted that the US and Britain and Australia and our many other partners had no right to take action to defend both the Iraqis and ourselves: This was NOT IN YOUR NAME. And we won't forget where you stood, in your ignorance and fashion-driven hatred of America. We won't forget."
The reasons for the Iraq war
The "anti-war" protesters
The war of 2003
The genocidal monster Saddam Hussein was President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003. Iraq was liberated from his rule in 2003, thanks to the US and its allies. The genocidal monster was deposed and executed, thanks to the US and its allies. His regime was destroyed.
2003 was a great year for the world, a moment of hope for all peoples suffering under tyrannies across the world.
Tragically, though, the forces of evil (totalitarianism, jihad and genocide) fought back after 2003. They refused to stop killing. They refused to allow the Iraqis live in peace and freedom.
The western left, which opposed the liberation of Iraq from Saddam, said that Iraq should be abandoned to these people. They said, in effect, that if evil fights back, evil should win.
The western left won the day. Their man Obama took office in Jan 2009. Obama then abandoned Iraq to the jihad and ISIS.
WMD was one of the main reasons for the Iraq war of 2003, but far from the only one.
Here are the reasons for the war:
Saddam was a genocidal dictator who extinguished human freedom in Iraq and tortured and executed hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children.
This to me is the only reason I need. I support a war against regimes like this any time, for more or less any reason. If a democracy wants to depose a tyranny like Saddam's Iraq, well who cares what the reason is. It's a good thing. Even if the aim was to seize all of Iraq's oil for profit, I would still support it.
Saddam did not keep his tyranny at home, but was a threat to his neighbours, including: (a) half the world's oil supply, and: (b) the democracy of Israel. Israel was strongly in favour of ending this threat, and rightly so.
Saddam was a state sponsor of terrorism for decades. After 9/11, this had to end.
State Sponsors of Terrorism (official US list since 1979).
Saddam Hussein's Support for International Terrorism (Bush White House)
Saddam's Iraq and Support for Terrorism (9/11 Commission)
Terrorism Havens: Iraq (CFR)
Iraq-Terrorism Connection (discoverthenetworks.org)
Iraq was believed to have an advanced WMD program (in particular nuclear weapons).
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Iraq certainly used to have such a program.
Operation Opera, the bombing by Israel of Iraq's nuclear weapons program in 1981.
It seems that, as at 2003, Iraq's nuclear weapons program was actually inactive. Why didn't Saddam let us know?
The amazing answer is suggested in: Hussein Was Sure Of Own Survival, Steve Coll, November 3, 2003. "Hussein was afraid to lose face with his Arab neighbors. Hussein concluded .. that Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries paid him deference because they feared he had weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was unwilling to reveal that his cupboard was essentially bare"
Revealed: Saddam's WMD plan, The Scotsman, 10 Oct 2004. Saddam needed his supposed WMD program as a deterrent: "So he told only a few senior military chiefs - and not until December 2002 - that he was actually telling the truth: he really didn't have any WMD. He had even bluffed his own ministers and intelligence service, which perhaps makes the mistakes of British and American intelligence more understandable."
Saddam, the Bomb and Me, 26 Sept 2004, by the head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear centrifuge program, has a slightly different angle. It says that Saddam himself didn't know what a bad state his nuclear weapons program was in. "Sort of like the emperor with no clothes, he fooled himself into believing he was armed and dangerous. But unlike that fairy-tale ruler, Saddam Hussein fooled the rest of the world as well."
Even if Iraq (as at 2003) had no active nuclear weapons program, it would have started again as soon as it got a chance. Best to end the regime.
A final reason, that did not work, was trying to change the Middle East by spreading democracy and human rights. Something had to be done after 9/11 to change the dynamic, and this was the neo-con dream, that Arabs might embrace freedom.
It did not work. Some Iraqis were receptive, but not enough. Iraq turned out to be stony soil. It was a brave and noble effort, but Iraq largely rejected the great opportunity it was given. The neo-con dream that Arabs might want to be free is dead. Some Arabs want to be free. But most do not.
Why I supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Democrat quotes on Iraq before the Iraq War.
Al Gore on Iraq, 1992.
The "anti-war" demos of Feb 2003 (before the invasion of Iraq)
The "anti-war" protesters say: Don't do anything. Never do anything. Leave tyrants to do what they like. And then we are innocent. We have no blood on our hands. It's seductive. I just don't know if it is moral.
Government opposition to the Iraq War. France and Germany refused to support America and Britain.
"A rolling river of political incontinence" - The February 15, 2003 protest.
In Britain and Ireland, the greatest political demonstrations in decades took place in 2003. To call for democracy in the suffering world that does not have it? To call for an end to fascist and communist dictators? No. They marched to protect a genocidal fascist. Shame on them. Shame on everybody who took part in those marches. Shame on them for spitting in the face of the brave democrats in Iraq and the Arab world.
Don't you know your left from your right? Part II, Nick Cohen, January 21, 2007, expresses my incredulity at these demos in Feb 2003:
"On 15 February 2003, about a million liberal-minded people marched through London to oppose the overthrow of a fascist regime. ... Saddam Hussein was delighted, and ordered Iraqi television to show the global day of action to its captive audience. ... these were history's largest co-ordinated demonstrations .. millions, maybe tens of millions, had marched to keep a fascist regime in power."
"Jose Ramos-Horta, the leader of the struggle for the freedom of East Timor, noticed that at none of the demonstrations in hundreds of cities did you see banners or hear speeches denouncing Saddam Hussein. If this was 'the left' on the march, it was the new left of the 21st century, which had abandoned old notions of camaraderie and internationalism in favour of opposition to the capricious American hegemony. They didn't support fascism, but they didn't oppose it either, and their silence boded ill for the future."
"Ian McEwan caught the almost frivolous mood: 'All this happiness on display is suspect. Everyone is thrilled to be together out on the streets - people are hugging themselves, it seems, as well as each other. If they think - and they could be right - that continued torture and summary executions, ethnic cleansing and occasional genocide are preferable to an invasion, they should be sombre in their view.'"
Iraqi dissidents in favour of war here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here.
Where Are The Iraqi "Peaceniks"? by Jeff Jacoby
"Reverend Jackson, let me speak!" by Amir Taheri - An Iraqi dissident watches the march: "These prosperous, peaceful and fat Europeans are marching in support of evil incarnate." He said that, watching the march, he felt Nazism was "alive and well and flexing its muscles in Hyde Park."
The Iraqi Prospect Organisation "wanted to persuade people that the anti-war movement did not speak for the Iraqis or Kurdish people. After all, their Iraqi relatives were praying for the invasion to happen."
Marching for terror by Mark Steyn - "One day, not long from now, when Iraq is free, they will despise those who marched to keep them in hell."
Dear marcher, please answer a few questions by David Aaronovitch - ".. Finally, what are you going to do when you are told - as one day you will be - that while you were demonstrating against an allied invasion, and being applauded by friends and Iraqi officials, many of the people of Iraq were hoping, hope against hope, that no one was listening to you?"
The marchers are doing Saddam's work by David Pryce-Jones - "Behind the demonstrators' slogans lies the assumption that Arabs should be left alone: they don't mind being brutalised, tortured and murdered by a fascist thug like Saddam. Where they come from, it is the natural order of things. That line of thought is nonsense. More than that - it is racist nonsense."
Freedom and Dignity: Iraqis get a taste (extended version titled Long Distance Arabs) - Amir Taheri on Liberation Day just 2 months later: "Here is the first lesson to draw from the liberation of Baghdad: Iraqis, and Arabs in general, are no different from other human beings. They, too, prefer to live in freedom and dignity."
In the US, the "anti-war" protests were organised by International ANSWER / The Workers World Party / Party for Socialism and Liberation. This group, with links to the Soviet Union's KGB, supported Stalin, supported the Soviet crushing of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, supported Mao's democide and the Cultural Revolution, supported China's killing of the Tiananmen Square protesters, supported Libya, supported the butcher Milosevic, supported (and still supports) Castro, and today supports (not just supports appeasement with, but actually supports!) the genocidal tyranny of North Korea.
At the time of these demos, it actually supported (not just supported appeasement with, but actually supported) Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Yes, that's right. The "anti-war" protests were organised by people who openly support Saddam.
Marching With Stalinists by Michael Kelly - "This is whom the left now marches with. The left marches with the Stalinists. The left marches with those who would maintain in power the leading oppressors of humanity in the world."
Read more about these sick western fascists here.
Behind the Placards by David Corn
March for tyranny by Andrew Bolt
ANSWER's support for the killing of Iranian dissidents
ANSWER supports (not just understands, but actually supports!) the killing of American troops by the Islamofascist and Baath Party holdouts
The 21st Century's skinheads - Michael J. Totten on the new western fascists like ANSWER.
Commies! Photos of real (not rhetorical) communists at "anti-war" protests.
"World Can't Wait" are also of course communists. See here.
The lifelong campaigner for tyrants and against human rights, Ramsey Clark.
Ramsey Clark defends Saddam, describing him as "reserved, quiet, thoughtful and dignified". Also here.
Ramsey Clark defends the slaughter of the village of Dujail - "He (Saddam) had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt."
The slaughter of Dujail, 1982
See more commentary.
The communist National Lawyers Guild was also involved in "anti-war" protests.
These tyranny lovers openly support the genocide state of North Korea.
North Korean Lawyers Guild by Shawn Macomber
The lifelong tyranny-supporter and opponent of human rights, Lynne Stewart, hardly needs refuting. Her words speak for themselves.
Speech to National Lawyers Guild, 2003, openly supports genocidal dictators: "And modern heroes, dare I mention? Ho and Mao and Lenin, Fidel and Nelson Mandela and John Brown, Che Guevara who reminds us "At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love." Our quests like theirs are to shake the very foundations of the continents."
Interview (also here), 2002, openly supports democidal communist tyranny: "I don't have any problem with Mao or Stalin or the Vietnamese leaders or certainly Fidel locking up people they see as dangerous."
Lynne Stewart was convicted of providing material support to terrorists 2005.
Saddam paid for "anti-war" demos in the Arab world, and he paid journalists and politicians throughout the Arab world and Europe.
Satire of anti-war marches. From Protest Warrior.
Peace and non-violence (separate page)
The liberation of 2003
Wrong again. Wrong before. The "peace" marches were wrong, wrong, wrong. Proved wrong, proved immoral, within weeks of happening.
The Iraqi people wanted liberation. The Iraqi people supported the war. They yearned for the freedom we live in.
The liberation was a brilliant success. In only a few weeks, Saddam's barbaric regime was destroyed. There were few innocent casualties. It was a triumph by any historical standard. Iraq was liberated. Uday and Qusay were killed. Saddam was captured and executed. Every dictator in the world was nervous. 2003 was truly a year of hope.
The "human shields"
A "human shield" discovers what Iraq is like
Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start"
I Was Wrong! by Ken Joseph, Jr
"What in the world do you mean?" I asked. "How could you not want peace?" "We don't want peace. We want the war to come" he continued.
.. telling them of progress in the talks at the United Nations on working some sort of compromise with Iraq I was welcomed not with joy but anger. "No, there is no other way! We want the war! It is the only way he will get out of our lives"
Here I had been demonstrating against the war thinking I had been doing it for the very people I was here now with and yet I had not ever bothered to ask them what they wanted.
"We are not afraid of the American bombing. They will bomb carefully and not purposely target the people. What we are afraid of is Saddam Hussein and what he and the Baath Party will do when the war begins."
In relation to that last point, about the Iraqi people trusting America, Iraq: A Moral Reckoning by Charles Krauthammer points out that the Iraqi people voted with their feet: "one of the more unnoticed facts of this war was the absence of refugees - the Iraqi people's silent homage to their trust [in the Allies]"
More stories of the human shield idiots (and here) - "The Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb the government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam. All Iraqi people want this war."
Christopher Hitchens, 2006, asks why the human shields aren't in Iraq when they are really needed - to protect ordinary Iraqis from the resistance: "What happened to the human shields? ... would not now be the ideal time for those who hate war to go to Iraq and stand outside the mosques, hospitals, schools, and women's centers that are daily subjected to murderous assaults?"
Richard Waghorne: "What they recognise and reveal in their actions, ... is that unlike the United States, the insurgency in Iraq will pay not one moment's notice to how many human shields they do or do not kill."
The first liberated Iraqis - "You just arrived. You're late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake his hand. We came out of the grave."
What took them so long? The UN, France, and the "anti-war" youth in the west, that's what.
The week of the fall of Iraq, as seen by:
Andrew Sullivan (see quote)
These include a compilation of the moronic predictions and opinion of so many, including:
The left were wrong
They were wrong by Andrew Bolt, on the failure of the left in Australia. - "This is the Vietnam of the Left."
On the outside by R. E
mmett Tyrrell Jr. - Doesn't it matter when people are proved wrong? Surely it counts for something??
- "The left has been wrong for so long that no knowledgeable observer even expects its pontificators to be right. ... Yet after all these decades of erroneous pronouncements, the American left remains both intellectually and morally superior to you and me. The American left is the only intellectual force in Western history to gain moral superiority by being wrong."
Can We Talk?, Eric Alterman, The Nation, April 3, 2003, is a masterpiece of failed leftist prediction:
He sneers at Richard Perle: "Did Perle, for instance, genuinely believe "support for Saddam, including within his military organization, will collapse at the first whiff of gunpowder"?"
He sneers at Paul Wolfowitz: "Is Wolfowitz really so ignorant of history as to believe the Iraqis would welcome us as "their hoped-for liberators"?"
He says the war is going badly: "Rapidly shifting conventional wisdom has already begun to blame Bush advisers' "bum advice," according to one Washington Post report, for the war's decidedly not-so-cakewalk-like character."
Later that week (!), support for Saddam, including within his military organization, collapsed and his regime fell. Opinion polls showed the majority of Iraqis welcoming the US as their hoped-for liberators, as many Iraqi bloggers explain, such as the eloquent Husayn Uthman.
The western media were wrong
Out of the "Quagmire" by J. Michael Waller - "Daddy, are we there yet?" - The hysterical, panicking, extremely short-term, deeply ignorant (and constantly wrong) coverage of the Iraq War in the western media. Once again, just like Afghanistan, the military were a far more trustworthy guide to what was going on and what would happen next than journalists were.
See No Freedom, Hear No Freedom, Speak No Freedom, Greg Yardley, April 10, 2003 - The silence of the anti-war media on Liberation Day.
The BBC were wrong
During the Iraq War, the BBC were nicknamed the "Baathist Broadcasting Corporation" by pro-war bloggers. Like RTE in Ireland, the taxpayer in Britain is forced to pay for a centre-left, anti-American, anti-Israeli station.
The Disgrace of the BBC by Josh Chafetz
Government opposition to the Iraq War. France and Germany led the opposition to the Iraq war among the western democracies. Russia and China also opposed the war.
Stupor, shame and repentance by Marc De Scitivaux - France wakes up with a hangover after the liberation, after its disgraceful, shameful support for Saddam. This is the most shameful event in French history since Vichy.
It's not really about Saddam by Mark Steyn - France doesn't give a damn about Iraq or the Iraqi people.
Alain Hertoghe's book (also here) on the French media's support for Saddam in the war.
Alain Hertoghe describes Le Monde as "Saddam's Gazette". - "It gave a picture from Baghdad of Saddam's units perfectly controlling the situation. ... Then when the Americans made their move, we read how they were massacring the Iraqis. The explanation for the collapse was that Saddam's fedayeen had so much compassion for the population that they stopped fighting."
France's policy is still sharply criticized by Iraqis, Remy Ourdan, Le Monde, 18 Mar 2004 - on how, oddly enough, Iraqis aren't grateful to the French for their opposition to the war and their long loyal support for Saddam. "With the exception of former Ba'athist officials, it is practically impossible to find anyone who supports Paris' position in the crisis."
"Chirac and de Villepin must understand that no Iraqi finds their position courageous... What did France do to help Iraq free itself from the dictator"
"Once the war was over, we saw that France's promises to help the Iraqi people were only wind."
"We wanted to be friends with the French, but they supported Chirac who defended Saddam to the end. And I still haven't understood why."
And an Iraqi on the disaster of Madrid: "Pacifist and anti-American Europe is celebrating the Spanish withdrawal from Iraq as if this were a great victory! We Iraqis think that France's and Germany's refusal to help us and the announced departure of Spain are a catastrophe."
Iraqi prime minister slams delusions of "pacifist" French, Hala Jaber, September 05, 2004 - about France's outraged complaints all of a sudden when two French journalists get kidnapped by the fascists (that France has long supported) in Iraq:
"a newspaper regarded as a mouthpiece for Allawi's party .. said President Jaques Chirac must share responsibility for the kidnappings because he had opposed international initiatives aimed at restoring Iraq's security."
"A second editorial complained that France was proud not to have helped topple the regime of Saddam Hussein and had remained silent while "terrorist attacks were being carried out against the Iraqi people and infrastructure ... Now France can't sit still. Its envoys are everywhere, including in Iraq, calling on all Iraqis to intervene to free their citizens"."
I don't think Iraqis will forget France's treachery anytime soon.
The Arab world was wrong
The Arab world's shameful record on Iraq:
Beirut, Baghdad by Fouad Ajami, August 25, 2003, on the utter failure of the Arab intellectuals. - "We needn't apologize to the other Arabs about our presence there, and our aims for it. The custodians of Arab power, and the vast majority of the Arab political class, never saw or named the terrible cruelties of Saddam. A political culture that averts its gaze from mass graves and works itself into self-righteous hysteria over a foreign presence in an Arab country is a culture that has turned its back on political reason."
Long Distance Arabs by Amir Taheri (version also here) - Is the Arab world humiliated by the liberation of Iraq? "If they are, so what? They should jump in a river. Today, Iraq is free"
What's Wrong with the Arab World? by Jonah Goldberg - The Arab world's appalling, and incredibly ignorant, response to the war in Iraq.
Silence on Saddam's mass graves
Arab Columnists on the Killing Fields of Iraq, MEMRI, June 9, 2003
"Many Arabs sinned ... against the Iraqi people when they stood by its executioners, when they underestimated the savagery with which the [Iraqi] regime treated its own people, when they opened up their media to anyone defending this ghoulish regime, and when they refused to treat others' opinions tolerantly. It is about time that some of them stand, with a minimum of self-respect, and apologize to the Iraqis...!"
"These plastic bags in the mass graves contained bullet-riddled skulls, [bodies] wrapped in rags, [tied] in ropes, [or] dressed in worn pieces of clothing ... Ropes still tied a mother's bones to her infant's, and a father's to his son"
Arab TV (separate page)
Iraq is free, Apr 2003
Almost nobody in Iraq was stupid enough to die for Saddam. The Iraqi army, sensibly, went home. The Iraqi people, sensibly, refused to listen to the moronic opinions of the Arab world. The Iraqi people, sensibly, refused to resist. Why resist your liberators? Why resist the people who are going to kill the tyrant?
An Iraqi celebrates 'return to the world' after 21 years hiding from Saddam - "If I met Mr Bush, I would say 'thank you, thank you, you are a good human, you returned me from the dead'"
Iraqi mother hides sons from Saddam for 23 years - The left tried to keep them in hell. America let them out.
"Give my peace to Mr. Bush. I love him. He saved us from the criminal."
Baghdad parents name baby boy after Bush - "I tell you all Iraqis hated Saddam's regime. It was only George Bush who liberated us, without him it wouldn't have happened. If he hadn't done it the sons of Saddam would have ruled us for years. He saved us from Saddam and that's why we named our son after him"
The Marsh Arabs are free (no thanks to Michael D. Higgins). - "Everyone is so happy. We are starting to live like we used to, not the way Saddam wanted us to live."
"I feel as if I have been born again. Iraq was a prison above ground and a mass grave beneath it." - "For the first time in almost half a century, Iraq has no executions, no political prisoners, no torture and almost no limits on freedom of expression. ... There are almost 200 newspapers and magazines that require no police permit and suffer no censorship"
Iraqi writer Hamid Ali Alkifaey - "No Iraqi can forget the moment when Saddam's statue was pulled down by Iraqis, assisted by US forces, in Baghdad. .. Iraq is now a free country thanks to the courage of George Bush and Tony Blair, and the US and British people who backed them."
Ahmed Chalabi thinks that someday France and Germany ".. will see their way clear to apologizing to the Iraqi people"
Thank You: An Iraqi poet celebrates the dictator's fall by Awad Nasir - "Those [US and British troops] who died to liberate our country are heroes in their own lands." [Not to the freaks of the left they're not!] "For us they will be martyrs and heroes. ... The U.S. and its allies took grave risks and showed exceptional courage in standing up against powers such as France and Russia .. who tried their desperate best to prolong Saddam's rule. ... [The US and Britain] should not leave Iraq until they are asked to do so by a freely elected Iraqi regime in Baghdad. In the meantime Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin, Kofi Annan and others have no authority to speak on behalf of my people."
The Iraqi Prospect Organisation on the sickness of the "anti-war" left - "I find it absolutely incredible that the anti-war people are now calling for the coalition to leave straight away. Nobody in Iraq wants that. The opinion polls show it's just 13 per cent. Don't they care about the Iraqi people and what they want at all?"
Interview with the highest Shia religious authority in North America (an Iraqi exile)
"We are grateful to the allied forces for the sacrifices they have made and continue to make in destroying the regime of Saddam Hussein and freeing Iraq. ... people are so happy not to have to fear being kidnapped, tortured or disappearing from one day to the next. They now have complete religious freedom and can express themselves as they want to."
He dismisses the "resistance" as Baathists and Islamofascists. He is opposed to the US leaving quickly.
And on the occasional sermons in Iraq against America he is scathing: "The Iraqis have had enough of these meaningless speeches on nationalism, Arab unity and the struggle against the West, responsible for all our misfortunes. We have had enough of this kind of rhetoric for thirty years. It has lead us to where we are now. The great majority of Shias are Iraqis who no longer want to hear these hollow words. They want good relations with their neighbors, with the West and a better life for their children."
After being forced to listen to weeks of panicking ignoramuses in the Irish and British media, it is a breath of cold reality to read Victor Davis Hanson's columns for March and April 2003 and understand what happened during the Iraq war, and why the Allies won.
The war was fast, easy and a stunning success. The Iraq war is "The greatest triumph of American policy since the end of the Cold War" in 1989. And the greatest military victory of the West since the end of World War Two in 1945.
The Anglo-American alliance wins again by Martin Walker - "Their war plan vindicated, their critics at least briefly silenced, the two English-speaking leaders who had defied so much of world opinion and conventional wisdom .... Iraq, the Middle East and - if they so choose - a new world order is now for Bush and Blair to define. The world's enduring, and only reliable military alliance has done it again. Or rather, the world's two best militaries delivered the outcome"
The liberation of Iraq started on July 4, 1776 by William Rees-Mogg - Democracy is on the march.
Cakewalk In Iraq, February 13, 2002 - His predictions, long before the war. "I believe demolishing Hussein's military power and liberating Iraq would be a cakewalk. Let me give simple, responsible reasons: (1) It was a cakewalk last time; (2) they've become much weaker; (3) we've become much stronger; and (4) now we're playing for keeps. ... Gordon and O'Hanlon say we must not "assume that Hussein will quickly fall." I think that's just what is likely to happen."
"Cakewalk" Revisited, April 10, 2003 - After liberation. "Granted, I'm an incurable optimist, but even I could never have envisioned the coalition controlling the enemy capital within three weeks"
So far, the War on Islamism is the most successful major war in US history - Victor Davis Hanson writing after Iraq. - ".. our present offensives going into the third year of fighting have cost far fewer lives than the first 25 months of any major conflict in American history - the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, or World War II. ... fewer American soldiers have been killed in two years of fighting than often were lost in one week in Vietnam"
Why the free world wins wars:
Why The West Has Won (And Will) by Victor Davis Hanson, The American Spectator (see archive copy)
Why Arabs Lose Wars by Norvell B. De Atkine, American Diplomacy
Arabs at War, Kenneth M. Pollack - Why Arabs lose. - Again, it's not bad races. It's bad ideas. If they adopted western ideas, they would win. (Of course, if they adopted western ideas, they would not be fighting the west. They would be allies of the west.)
Lessons of the War by Victor Davis Hanson, notes how the Iraqi army and security forces were very good at killing and torturing unarmed civilians. They were very good at shooting helpless, unarmed, civilian men, women and children. But when faced with a real army, they were annihilated in three weeks.
Western decadence beats faith, hope and terrorism by Anatole Kaletsky
Triumph of the free by Andrew Bolt - The brutal 30 year tyranny of Iraq did not fall in 8 years (8 years!) of war with the fellow tyranny of Iran, but fell in 3 weeks (3 weeks!) when it came up against the men and women of the free world.
We win because we are free. We are rich because we are free. We dominate the world because we are free. Why is the world too stupid to see this? Why don't they embrace freedom too?
Iraq - The war after 2003 (separate page)
One standard for Bush, another for Hollande:
Here, in Jan 2013, France liberates Mali from jihadist terrorists.
Hollande did exactly what Chirac condemned Bush for in 2003.
France ignored the UN, invaded, and were welcomed as liberators.
Charles Johnson (back when he was good) on the liberation of Iraq:
"This is a truly historic moment, LGF readers. To the naked protesters, the Hollywood whiners, the Indymedia haters, the BBC and CNN and MSNBC and Al Jazeera and Arab News: This moment is IN OUR NAME. Those who sought to keep the Iraqi people in their living hell, who stood in the way of their liberation, and insisted that the US and Britain and Australia and our many other partners had no right to take action to defend both the Iraqis and ourselves: This was NOT IN YOUR NAME. And we won't forget where you stood, in your ignorance and fashion-driven hatred of America. We won't forget."