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President George W. Bush missed a great opportunity
Wednesday night. Instead of explaining how a surge
of 20,000 more soldiers will improve American prospects in
Iraq, he should have declared victory and announced plans
for a triumphant homecoming parade to honor those who have
borne the burden of fighting.
Granted, this sounds like one of those Healthy
Forests
or Clear Skies
proposals from an
administration which has often exhibited some difficulties
in grappling with objective reality.
But in fact, there are many developments that Bush could
spin into a plausible Mission Finally Accomplished
proclamation:
· Saddam Hussein, who twice started wars with Iraq's neighboring nations, has been removed from power, and neither he nor his sons will ever again be a threat to anyone on this earth.
· The Ba'athist Party is no longer a political force in Iraq.
· There are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Or if there are, they are under American control and could come home with the soldiers.
· Iraq has an elected government.
· Iraq is stable, in that things there are quite unlikely to change in the near future.
· Any Islamo-fascist terrorists remaining in Iraq are so busy fighting each other that they lack the resources to attack the United States anywhere outside Iraq.
· Bush is the Decider,
and if he decides
that the American invasion and occupation has resulted in a
victory, who can reasonably argue with his assessment?
Of course, we have to consider how this would play in domestic politics. Many Democrats, happy to see the war end, would doubtless be glad to bite their tongues and play along.
If others complained that this isn't exactly a victory, they could be dismissed as carping critics who constantly find fault with President Bush, even when he is making America stronger by freeing our military to address other threats to the national security.
Some stalwarts of his own party might question Bush's resolve if he proclaims victory, but his spinmeisters shouldn't have much trouble with such criticism. They could easily point out how GOP domestic visions have been advanced in Iraq.
For instance, a secular political party has been removed from power, and Iraqis are now free to act on their Sunni or Shi'a religious convictions.
Also, Iraqis freely exercise the same rights as
Americans enjoy under the Second Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. The central government holds little power,
and local control
prevails in much of the
country.
Further, there have been no reports from Iraq of gay marriage, nor of research involving human stem-cells or global-warming. And from what I have been able to read, the country has no abortion clinics, and its public schools are not controlled by secular humanists attempting to inflict their liberalism on naive children.
In other words, important Republican goals for the United States are being attained in Iraq, and a triumphant U.S. withdrawal should not impede such progress in Iraq, and indeed may accelerate the process.
There is an economic factor to consider, since Iraqi oil
is unlikely to be a significant part of the world market
for some time to come. But the President can point to the
environmental benefits of high oil prices -- a step toward
curing our addiction,
as well as the significant
financial rewards for those far-sighted folks who invested
in him and Vice-President Dick Cheney years ago.
Granted, this suggestion of proclaiming victory is not
original. About 40 years ago, Vermont Sen. George Aiken, a
Republican, talked about Vietnam. The best policy,
he said, is to declare victory and go home.
It was a pretty good idea then, and it is an even better idea now.
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