That's what Omar Fadhil of Iraq the Model fame told radio talk show host Dennis Prager last week while explaining why the surge is working. (see links to website and audio below)
I don't think I have to explain what a sea change this is in Iraqi thinking, especially given our abandonment of them in 1991 and the 24/7 promise to al Qaeda calls for abandonment for the last 3 years by the leadership of the Democratic Party and most elected DC Democrats.
What I may need to remind some here of is who is most responsible for this sea change and how important this could be to GOP fortunes in 2008.
President George W. "the Liberator" Bush is responsible. He has never wavered in his commitment to keep faith with the millions of Iraqis that voted and that risk their lives daily fighting with our American and Coalition forces against al Qaeda and other forces of extremism that desire to defeat us and the forces of moderation in the Middle East.
Newt Gingrich said it best today on FNS when he challenged Russ Feingold and others in the appeasement party when he said that the left wing of the Democratic Party wants the United States to lose in Iraq, without a thought to our friends in Iraq who would be slaughtered if we left precipitously. He seemed to be trying to guilt the Dems into supporting the war, or more likely, painting the image of the mean-spirited Dems in the minds of viewers.
Critics of the Commander in Chief can carp about this or that, but it is Bush's will made America's will that is more responsible for the good news from Iraq today than any surge or change in strategy.
Like JFK said, America does things not because they are easy, but because they are hard, and our work in Iraq would have been no less hard no matter the generals, armchair or retired, we had listened to in 2003 (even if Turkey had not betrayed us).
The fact is that just by staying the course, we have broken thru the minds of many Iraqis.
Not leaving is what matters most. Showing the world that America can take a tough fight is what matters.
America never lacked for the troops to stick it out whether it was Patton's troops in WWII; MacArthur's in Korea; ours and South Vietnam's in 1973-75; ours in 1991 or ours in Somalia.
But the difference now and for the last 4 years is that we have a CINC that shares the spine that won in 1776 and since when we had to win.
George W. Bush has convinced Iraqis that we are there to stay and in so doing has enabled and inspired them to join us against the extremists in their midst.
Americans and Iraqis and many freedom loving Arabs and Muslims will forever be grateful that George W. Bush passed this way.
Our candidates in 2008 would do well to show the same determination to win wars for moral and policy reasons as well as the selfish reason that it wins elections and can lead us out of filing Minority Reports and back to the majority.
Links to website and audio:
http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
The HinzSight Report
The Minority Report
Race 4 2008
Originally submitted for publication to
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