One of the best things that could have happened…happened yesterday. For two decades, military analysts and Washington think tanks have been predicting a future where Islamic terrorism and our direct intervention into Arab affairs was inevitable. The idea that a democratic Arab country in the Middle East seemed far fetched, but democracy in the Middle East was the only prescription to the Arab disease that has given birth to global Islamic terrorism. Saddam Hussein gave us that chance, but we failed to take it the first time around. Instead, our Presidential administration (who knew better) listened to the appeasing UN and to the ignorance of our state representations and allowed the opportunity to slip away - then came 9/11. As tragic as it was, it gave us our next opportunity. This time, the current Presidential administration took it.
The easy part was the military action. Operation Iraqi Freedom was one of the most successful military campaigns in history. Saddam Hussein and his regime were shattered. Baghdad fell, to the collective shame of those Islamists in power who prefer homegrown despots to Western-inspired democracy. The hardliner Islamist revenge was to slaughter their civilians in the name of “Allah” and this is where the difficulty ushered in. Every day, Iraqis are more engaged in defending their own country. The Iraqi people have been revolted by the terrorists' barbarities. They may not want U.S. troops in their streets forever, but they do not want to be ruled by fanatical murderers. Kidnapping aid workers and lopping off heads on videotape horrifies decent Muslims. The slaughter of unarmed Iraqi recruits for the police and their army does not win hearts and minds and tell us something about the resolve of the Iraqi people. Earlier this year, the people of Iraq turned out to vote proudly for a future they want and showed their purple fingers to the world to defy their murderers and to declare that they will not be intimidated into the Middle Eastern status quo. This angered their fanatic legions and the violence worsened. Recently, their constitution passed through another Iraqi vote. The insurgency has been beaten, however not gone. What remains, largely, is the Sunni population that has shown descent - understandable given both the fact that they had enjoyed special privileges under Saddam, and those who are now denied those privileges are making life difficult for everybody.
Then came yesterday. The Iraqi government has made the public announcement that they would like a “timetable” for U.S. retrograde. This “timetable” would be in accordance to the continued build up of their military and security. This isn’t to be taken at its extreme literal meaning, but more simple guidelines that are already in place. This is not what people should focus on, because it is eerily close to what the U.S. Government has been saying all along and it is extremely probably that the U.S. and Iraq collaborated on this before the announcement. What is important is the impact it will have on our departure from their country and on our security in this “War on Terror”…
1) The Iraqi Government has made this request public in an attempt to unite the Sunni with the popular Shi’ite and Kurdish sentiment inside Iraq, thereby making an effort to stop Iraq on Iraq violence. This was a very tactful political move.
2) As I’ve stated before, there will be a substantial decline of troops in Iraq by next fall. The timing of the Iraqi governments request is impeccable - too perfect for it to not be by design. In any count, by the Iraqi government announcing their wishes publicly, our future movements will show the Muslim world that the legitimate Iraqi government has spoken and the U.S. is honoring the wishes of another Democratic Nation. The Middle East is watching, but they have spent generations being taught to be skeptical and paranoid of the West. The people of Syria who are currently being oppressed by their Baathist Party and their reformist that are keen to Bush’s sense of change for the Middle East are curious. 70 percent of the Iranian population is below thirty years old and they are disenchanted with their Mullahs and the Iranian theocracy. This is our chance to show them that we are not the enemy and our intentions are good. We do not wish to rule them. We simply wish to live peacefully with them and as long as their extremists oppress them, dictators, Arab blasphemy, and theocracies this is never going to happen.
3) Al-Queda is reeling from the beating they have taken since 9/11. We destroyed the Taliban in Afghanistan, destroyed countless of their “martyrs” through the insurgency into Iraq, and we have engaged them in other countries around the world (though not too publicly). Their finances have been frozen or squandered and no Muslim country’s government wants anything to do with them. The signs of this are obvious from their recent targets of choice. Throughout the 90’s, they targeted U.S. military installations, embassies, a Naval Ship, disrupted a UN peace mission, and attacked military barracks’ - and our ignoring of these acts culminated into their ‘master piece’…9/11. Since 9/11 they have been on the run and their desperate attempt to show the millions of Muslim cheerleaders in the Middle East that they are still a formidable force have allowed them to merely attack fellow Muslims inside Iraq and in other Muslim countries - Bombings in Jordan and Bali being the most recent. Not to smart when trying to maintain a certain illusion. (The “apocalyptic” terrorists never leave themselves a path to peace. Destruction is their only goal and they do not care where it takes them.) Al-Queda is not the only extremist group. There are many others, but they have remained silenced through this. Islamic groups inside the Middle East had merged into Al-Queda only to be killed off or they have simply dissipated. Our leaving Iraq on “Iraqi government terms” is the final blow to these zealots and to the Middle Eastern leadership who wish to maintain their “sovereignty” through the oppression of its people.
Make no mistake…Iraq will not be the end to this “War on Terror.” Future administrations will have to deal with this. Islam’s militants and their legion of adherents are determined to be at war with us in any fashion. Aggressive diplomacy with Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and China are ongoing. Current military actions in the Philippines are ongoing and there will be future endeavors. We must work our way in from the hopeful, unsettled frontiers, from Africa through Asia, in the Balkans, and in North America. The complex, exasperating, and frequently inspiring world of Islam faces a historically unique challenge. An entire religious civilization, of remarkable variety, must change if it is to survive economically and culturally. We are foolish if we do not do what lies within our power to enable that change to occur. Success will never be final, but always a matter of degree - which is the difference between a bloody contest of civilizations and the routine ebb and flow of lesser conflicts