THE IRAQ WAR WAS ALWAYS CENTRAL TO THE WAR ON JIHADOTERROR

There were three major reasons why the Iraq War was conceived of as being central to the GWOT:

(1) The suffering the sanctions had inflicted on Iraq (largely because of how Saddam and the UN perverted the Oil for Food Program) were a major complaint of al Qaeda. By overthrowing Saddam, we were able to end the sanctions and invest in Iraq and the Iraqi people. This neutralized a major recruitng plank of al Qaeda.

(2) The US troops stationed in Saudi Arabia were a major complaint of al Qaeda. By overthrowing Saddam we wee able to withdraw all our troops from Saudi Arabia. This negated a major recruiting plank of al Qaeda.

(3) Saddam aided jihadoterror all over the world. By overthrowing Saddam we cut off these jihadoterrorists from Iraq's oil wealth.

These three basic and important strategic goals were unequivocably achieved by our war against Saddam.

[ASIDE: There were other reasons for overthrowing Saddam; the UNSCR #1441 details a couple of dozen. And then there's the fact that Saddam was firing on our forces - an act of war in anyone's book. And don't forget that enforcing the no-fly zones was costing us billions each year and could not be kept up in perpetuity. These no-fly zones actually prevented genocide of the Kurds and the Shias.]

Since 2004, al Qaeda has chosen to make Iraq a central front in the GWOT - though they began terrorist operations there as soon as Saddam was toppled. Making the post-Saddam Iraq the central battlefield in the GWOT was not decided unilaterally by the USA. We believed we could do in Iraq what we had done in Afghanistan - where al Qaeada is still fighting, but not as intensively as in Iraq. This is in part because we are getting more aid from the EU and NATO in Afghanistan and also more assistance from Pakistan. In Iraq, we're not getting enough military assistance from the EU or NATO, and Iraq's neighbor - Iran - is actively attacking the nascent democracy by aiding the most extreme elements of the Shia community.

Nevertheless, Iraq is making progress: We and our Iraqi allies are fighting back and defending a nascent democracy. This is a noble cause. It deserves our support. Politicians who decry it as lost and who call for withdrawal are cowardly scum doing the bidding of Iran and al Qaeda.

Lefties and doves also charge that Bush and trhe neocons promised that the GWOT and the Iraq War - and its aftermath - would be a cake-walk. The doves are WRONG AGAIN: Bush always said the GWOT was going to be a long war - on the scale of the Cold War. Bush never promised a short war. NEED PROOF? Here's a link to a TIME article from the week afetr 9/11/01. EXCERPT:

Posted Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2001

Wars are easy to start. But they can be difficult to sustain. George W. Bush understands this, and so has been furiously managing expectations, pressing the case with almost everyone he talks to that this will be a long war against terrorism.

Er, um... that's Bush saying that the GWOT was going to be a long war a couple of weeks after 9/11. IOW: it's not a recent excuse meant to rationalize the fact that we are - five years after 9/11 - still fighting the enemy. Those who argue this are just flat out plain wrong.

Doves and Dems also charge that "democratization is a post-facto rationalization dreamed up by the Rove/Perle/Cheney/neocon/Likud hawks, and only became a central part of the effort to justify the Iraq War because of the apparent absence of WMD." They are flat out plain wrong on this count, too. Bush spoke of democratization six months before the war began in his address at and challenge to the UN. EXCERPT:

If we meet our responsibilities, if we overcome this danger, we can arrive at a very different future. The people of Iraq can shake off their captivity. They can one day join a democratic Afghanistan and a democratic Palestine, inspiring reforms throughout the Muslim world. These nations can show by their example that honest government, and respect for women, and the great Islamic tradition of learning can triumph in the Middle East and beyond. And we will show that the promise of the United Nations can be fulfilled in our time.

Those who whine that the war against jihadoterrorism is dragging on too long, and that Iraq and democratization a distractions have forgotten these words. These words prove that the whiners and defeatists are just flat-out wrong.

And the whining doves and defeatist Dems have forgotten that after 9/11, the Left also argued that we were going to have to "drain the swamp." Well, that's what democratization does; it drains the swamp. And it takes time to drain swamps as scummy as those which have been fouled by the likes of Saddam and by islamofascism.

That's why we need to be a little patient. YEAH YEAH: Like Mr. Ledeen, I want us to go "faster, please." But I accept a basic fact: this is an epochal conflict, and it's probably going to last a few more decades. Which is why it would be helpful if the Democrats and the MSM got on board and stopped supporting the enemy.

And it would also be nice if those on the Right who are - (in the aftermath of the Hizballah-friendly terms of the so-called cease-fire) - getting fed up with Bush's seeming timidity, woiuld shut up, too.

Whether we like it or not, those of us in the West... we're all in this together.