Thank God and George Bush

I appreciated so much a well written column by Bret Stephans in the Wall Street Journal.

Where does that leave us now? Perhaps it's worth considering what we have gained now that Iraq looks like a winner.

Here's a partial list: Saddam is dead. Had he remained in power, we would likely still believe he had WMD. He would have been sitting on an oil bonanza priced at $140 a barrel. He would almost certainly have broken free from an already crumbling sanctions regime. The U.S. would be faced with not one, but two, major adversaries in the Persian Gulf. Iraqis would be living under a regime that, in an average year, was at least as murderous as the sectarian violence that followed its collapse. And the U.S. would have seemed powerless to shape events.

Instead, we now have a government that does not threaten its neighbors, does not sponsor terrorism, and is unlikely to again seek WMD. We have a democratic government, a first for the Arab world, and one that is increasingly capable of defending its people and asserting its interests.

We have a defeat for al Qaeda. Critics carp that had there been no invasion, there never would have been al Qaeda in Iraq. Maybe. As it is, thousands of jihadists are dead, al Qaeda has been defeated on its self-declared "central battlefield," and the movement is largely discredited on the Arab street and even within Islamist circles.

We also have -- if still only prospectively -- an Arab bulwark against Iran's encroachments in the region. But that depends on whether we simply withdraw from Iraq, or join it in a lasting security partnership.

He accurately says that now that the war in Iraq has been won, Obama and McCain are talking like, WHAT WAR. There's nothing to pull the troops out of. We won. I'm so glad George W Bush had the courage to do the right thing.

The world is a safer better place for it. I know I'm a warmonger in many people's eyes but from the first days I saw this from a long view as a prophetic line in the sand. I still do. Ron, my brother from NZ will disagree with me. But I see it like Bret Stephens sees it.

WE WON - THANK GOD (and George W Bush).