Why We Are in Iraq

These smiling faces are reason number one. The reason Theater Iraq is a part of the war on terror is that we could not allow these children to be the property of Saddam Hussein or his sons to rape and torture as they please.

The plain and simple truth, which astoundingly has to be repeated over and over again for some of you, is that after 9/11 we could not allow a Saddam Hussein to continue funding and harboring terrorists, pursuing WMD, subverting sanctions and inspections, and murdering hundreds of thousands of his own people and call it a successful war on terror.

Just look at these girls in their classroom. Do they deserve to live under Saddam Hussein? Or these boys, do they not deserve the chance to smile and learn? To live in freedom? Could you look at your own children and say they don't deserve that?

Some say we had no right to 'impose' freedom on them. They assert that we have no right to try to 'change their culture' by trying to 'create democracy at the point of a gun'. What they overlook is that Iraq has a long history of liberal society, even by western standards. Iraqis have a culture that was destroyed by Baathism and Saddam Hussein. Or what do we imagine happens when a heartless murderer gains total power?

We are responsible for what happened in Iraq, we allowed a virulent strain of fascism to take hold and strangle the life out of an entire nation for four decades. We cannot afford to continue such a heartless and selfish foreign policy today.

My friends, we did not invade Iraq to colonize and control. We did so to restore the god given rights they are due. The right to freedom. The right to grow up and play their part in society. These are human rights, not rights exclusive to western culture.

So how is this a part of the war on terror?

It is the only long term solution for victory in this war. Ultimately, force of arms will not win the war on terror if we leave millions under dictatorships and statist governments. After all, what would we gain by merely killing or capturing Bin Laden if we left the Taliban in power in Afghanistan? Nothing at all, when individuals who despise western culture culture have more power than ever before to either create peace and freedom or death and destruction precisely because our way of life empowers individuals as never before in history.

The conditions under which some Muslims became terrorists and suicide bombers were not created overnight and will not be completely changed overnight. But it will never change if we say we have no part to play in changing it.

If we are not willing to put our blood and treasure on the line for their future and for their freedom, how can we ask them to do so for us?

If we say we have no right to fight for freedom for these people, our brothers, our fellow human beings, then we have no right to freedom ourselves. It is not a human right, if it does not apply to all equally.

I know that some will argue that we have violated human rights at Abu Ghraib, and this means that we are no better than Saddam Hussein and thus have no right to be in Iraq, or never should have been. Though it is true that we broke our own code of conduct, our own laws, that we have abused prisoners and in at least one case tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as unfortunate as that was, we still set an example by showing that we are not above our own laws and that such incidents are aberations. As such, it does not negate our responsibility to fight for freedom in the Middle East. In fact, it makes it all the more important that we not fail in what we have set out to do. That we not turn aside from doing what is right because a few did wrong.

What about tyranny all over the world?

In this case, the tool required to remove Saddam Hussein was military force. Nothing less would do, and nothing less may be needed again in other places against other dictatorships in the future. Does that mean that if we cannot free everyone at one time that it must not be done? Hardly. It means that we do what we can when we can and plan for the liberation and freedom for all who live under the same sky, and on the same earth.

Lest you say this is all purely political, I fully expect a Democrat to be President again in the future, and I will champion the same cause for a Democratic President as I have Bush. I think that our foreign policy will point in this direction for years to come. It will be different for each President, and a Democratic President may make a lot of noise about not using Military force as Bush has done, but as long as they focus on promoting and demanding freedom and democracy anywhere in the world, I will be for it.

The Truth On the Ground, a letter from a soldier.

When I told people that I was getting ready to head back to Iraq for my third tour, the usual response was a frown, a somber head shake and even the occasional "I'm sorry." When I told them that I was glad to be going back, the response was awkward disbelief, a fake smile and a change of subject. The common wisdom seems to be that Iraq is an unwinnable war and a quagmire and that the only thing left to decide is how quickly we withdraw. Depending on which poll you believe, about 60 percent of Americans think it's time to pull out of Iraq.

How is it, then, that 64 percent of U.S. military officers think we will succeed if we are allowed to continue our work? Why is there such a dramatic divergence between American public opinion and the upbeat assessment of the men and women doing the fighting?

...It is difficult for most Americans to rationalize this optimism in the face of the horrific images and depressing stories that have come to symbolize the war in Iraq. Most of the violent news is true; the death and destruction are very real. But experienced military officers know that the horror stories, however dramatic, do not represent the broader conditions there or the chances for future success. For every vividly portrayed suicide bombing, there are hundreds of thousands of people living quiet, if often uncertain, lives. For every depressing story of unrest and instability there is an untold story of potential and hope. The impression of Iraq as an unfathomable quagmire is false and dangerously misleading.

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