Looks Like Stabilization
Here’s an interesting fact for perspective:
The number of daily attacks in Iraq has fallen almost 95% from levels a year ago. Also of note, the murder rate in Iraq in November was 0.9 per 100,000 people. That is lower than the rate from before Saddam was overthrown. For those keeping score, the 2007 murder rate in the US was 5.9 per 100,000. Can we declare victory yet?
Now we sit back and watch the real-time hagiographers transform Iraq into Obama’s military victory.
Hellava victory, Brownie, Hellava victory. I quess it is if the object is to reduce the world’s population. Good numbers Justin. How many dead babies?
In our country or theirs?
David,
I didn’t even know that abortion was legal in Iraq!
Funny responses. I should get that for my mine. There is no justification for this war. You, Justin and bobc,would have to work overtime to come up with some real kind of answer. It tells me that there is none. The stated just reason was WMD which was a deception for the American people and the world and probably a self deception for the Bush people. The unstated reason that Thomas Friedman spelled out- to kick some Arab butt and let them know we are serious and hardass- is no justification either. So to go and wage war when it is not necessary or just- and many people die- US soldiers killed, injured and put in a can’t win position- and you are talking about who gets the victory?
It’s okay, David. Soon, President Obama will be leading us into the “right” war: in Pakistan (as he steps up our efforts in the other “right” war – Afghanistan).
David,
We’re looking at very different realities, you and I. There were three distinct rationals for deposing Saddam Hussein:
1. WMD. Iraq had used WMDs in the past and was continually playing games with weapons inspectors. Recall that sanctions were rapidly falling in viability, and that all indications (apart from the possibility of exported evidence and even weapons) are that Hussein had distilled and ordered his capabilities such that he could reestablish WMD production and have reconstituted weapons within months after the end of sanctions.
2. Terrorism. The Ba’athists did have connections to terrorist groups, including al Qaeda (recall Salman Pak, for one) — certainly sufficient to transfer weapons once he’d reconstitued them. Moreover, drawing the terrorists to war against our military forces in that country is part of what prevented further attacks within our borders and enabled the Iraqi people to see the viciousness of the Islamists up close and personal.
3. Humanitarian and civic. In a post-9/11 reality, the world simply can no longer tolerate the likes of Hussein as a geopolitical calculation, especially given his disposition and behavior from the early ’90s on. Granted we can’t dismantle all dictatorships around the world, but the lives of the people of Iraq have been improved, and if the West takes appropriate steps, we’ve new leverage for transforming the Middle East.