On this, the one year anniversary of the start of the Iraq war,it is important to consider where we are, how we got here and wherewe are going.
How we got here has been widely debated and argued, butessentially, it all comes back to Sept. 11, 2001. Had we not lost3,000 innocent civilians, there would be no extensive war on terroror with Iraq.
Some believe the way to handle terrorism is not with war butwith "law enforcement." This view could be passed off as naive, hadit not already been tried unsuccessfully by Presidents Carter,Reagan, Bush Sr. and Clinton.
It has not worked in the past. It will not work in thefuture.
Others believe the war on terror is a legitimate war, but thatIraq is a distraction from, rather than a part of, it.
A war on terror cannot be won unless we deal with states whosponsor such terror.
Saddam financed Palestinian suicide bombers and harboredterrorists in the past several years.
Many believe that because no WMDs have been found, PresidentBush must have lied to the public. But before the war, the issuewas never whether or not there were WMDs. Everyone, includingGermany, France and even John Kerry believed Saddam had them. Theissue was how to deal with that. In the context of 9/11, facing afanatical enemy, Bush made the decision that the risk of Saddam --a man who had used WMDs in the past -- possessing these weapons orgiving them to terrorists was too great.
In any case, UN Resolution 1441 put the onus squarely on Saddamto prove he did not have these weapons. He defied that resolution,as he did 16 others.
So we went to war, and we deposed Saddam and his regime. Asusual, the U.S. Armed Forces demonstrated why they have no parallelin human history. They fought bravely, and some gave their lives,but not in vain.
No WMDs have been found, but that doesn't make this war amistake. By toppling Saddam's regime, we have given the Iraqis hopeand started what could be the first Arab democracy.
It is important to note that almost none of the cynical anti-warpredictions have come true. Iraq has not descended into civil war,oil prices are higher than ever, two-thirds of al-Qaida'sleadership has been killed or captured, no more attacks have takenplace on U.S. soil, and the "Arab street" did not rise up (though Isuspect that if it did, it would be to topple the authoritarianregimes of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria).
Nor was the Bush administration's action "unilateral." Bushassembled a coalition larger than that of the first Gulf War (49countries have contributed, 34 have given troops).
The charge of presidential candidate John Kerry that this is a"fraudulent coalition" is not only false, it is insulting. Tellthat to the families of fallen troops from Britain, Italy, Polandand Spain.
Speaking of Spain, we all mourned the loss of more than 200 oftheir citizens in Madrid last week. It is disheartening, however,to see the Spanish people, in their frustration, elect a governmentthat will almost certainly appease the very terrorists who carriedout that attack.
Those attacks and others painfully proved that this war onterror is indeed a war. Terrorists will not simply go away if wepromise to be nice to them. The only way to end terror is toeliminate terrorists and the states who sponsor them. Let there beno doubt -- this is war, and we must win.
