America's THREE Great VICTORIES in Iraq

Jules Crittenden noted that the AP seems to have discovered what a difference a free, democratic, and stable Iraq will make in the Middle East:

But try as it might to discuss where we are five years on without giving Bush any props, the Associated Press has to admit that we have some leverage, and a substantial national interest, at stake in that nascent democracy won with the blood of many thousands of Iraqis and Americans, wedged between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The AP article notes:

However unlikely it may seem today, a relatively stable Iraq would have all the cards necessary to emerge as a major player in the Persian Gulf, where Saudi Arabia and Iran are competing for leadership.

Those three countries account for most of the population and most of the oil in the Gulf, which has about 60 percent of the world's proven reserves.

How the three deal with one another will shape the Middle East for decades.

And then:

Sectarian fighting has eased, and thousands of Sunni insurgents turned against al-Qaida and joined forces with the Americans.

Still, Arab governments have been slow to develop full diplomatic relations with Iraq, despite intense American pressure. Iraqis face enormous problems in seeking refuge elsewhere in the Arab world.

Many Iraqis resent the Arab attitude and fear that shunning them only enhances the influence of Iran, which embraced the new Iraqi government.

All these uncertainties will probably encourage Washington to pay close attention to Iraq for years.

"All Americans should be and are proud of the achievements in Iraq and the American role in bringing about the change," U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said recently.

The positive developments and achievements in and of Iraq are the direct result, the fruit of America's military victory -- or victories -- in Iraq.

Because from 2003 to 2008, the United States fought three wars in Iraq, and won them all.

What were those three wars?

The first war won by the United States in Iraq was the war against Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath Socialist Regime. This was the war the Senator Joe Biden supported, and if he were honest enough to admit it, would support today. It was a war to dismantle a genocidal regime that had murdered as many as 5 million of its own citizens and which by supporting and harboring anti-American terrorists, presented us with a grave threat.

This first war against the Saddam Hussein regime was an unparalleled military victory. In little more than 3 weeks, some 250,000 American troops defeated as many as 400,000 Iraqi troops, moving a major armed force across hostile territory farther and faster than any previous campaign in recorded history. And in this war, the United States suffered fewer than 200 dead. The war against Saddam Hussein was in fact won as swiftly and cleanly as the Bush Administration had promised.

But after Saddam Hussein had been vanquished, Al Qaeda, from its headquarters in Pakistan, declared Iraq to be the new primary battleground in its jihad against America. Thus began the second war won by the United States in Iraq after 2003.

Al Qaeda poured as many as 50,000 foreign fighters into Iraq along the ratlines running to and from Syria and Iran. Iraqi terrorists and remnants of the Ba'ath Socialist regime also participated. The war against Al Qaeda and its allies in Iraq lasted years, and is still not entirely finished. But the United States defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq, accomplishing a successful counterinsurgency, something American defeatists and America's leftist enemies said that could never be done.

Most of those 50,000 Al Qaeda fighters died on the soil of Iraq. They won't be able to carry their jihad to the Madrid or London subway systems. They won't be able to commit acts of terror against American interests and freedom's defenders anywhere.

The victory against Al Qaeda in Iraq was much more costly than the war against the Saddam Hussein regime for American troops. Most of the casualties suffered by Coalition Forces in Iraq were the result of this counter-terrorist and counterinsurgency war.

The third great victory of the United States in Iraq, was the strategic victory of suppressing the Sunni-Shi'a civil war finally ignited by Al Qaeda when terrorists blew up the Golden Mosque in Samarra. The civil war in Iraq ignited when this act of sectarian hatred rekindled yet again the embers of a 1400-year-old hatred. The anti-American pundits and the defeatists (such as the entire leadership of the Democrat Party) said we could never win it. We could never end the bloody civil war, and Senator Joe Biden even recommended the partition of Iraq into separate Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurdish statelets.

But thanks to the persistence of President Bush, who would not accept that America should merely fight for a draw, and thanks to the leadership of General David Petraeus, the United States of America won again, ending the Iraqi civil war and bringing stability to the country.

Two of these victories -- the war against Al Qaeda and the war to bring an end to the Iraqi civil war -- would never have happened with a Democrat in the White House. Barack [middle name redacted] Obama wanted to surrender to Al Qaeda before the so-called surge ever started, and he still thinks that was the right position even today. He would have been happy to see the United States defeated, American interests thwarted, and Iraq descend into a maestrom of terror and genocide -- merely to advance his own political ambitions.

There is only one word for that: evil.

Vote accordingly.