Victory in Iraq
What is it about “Iraq” and “victory” in the same sentence that gives people the willies? A local rabbi, leading his congregation in a prayer for American troops every Sabbath, used to ask the Lord to return them “speedily, safely and victoriously to their families.” Some congregants objected – not those who actually had children in the military – so the rabbi dropped “victory.” After a JINSA Report mentioned “our victory in Iraq,” a reader wrote, “If we have another ‘victory’ like Iraq it will be the end of America.”
What is the problem with victory?
What is it about “Iraq” and “victory” in the same sentence that gives people the willies? A local rabbi, leading his congregation in a prayer for American troops every Sabbath, used to ask the Lord to return them “speedily, safely and victoriously to their families.” Some congregants objected – not those who actually had children in the military – so the rabbi dropped “victory.” After a JINSA Report mentioned “our victory in Iraq,” a reader wrote, “If we have another ‘victory’ like Iraq it will be the end of America.”
What is the problem with victory?
There are those who think winning isn’t “nice.” They want all children to get ribbons in sports and don’t think high schools should have valedictorians. If there are “winners” there will be “losers” and they worry about the psyche of the latter. “Everyone wins” may work in school, but in Iraq – and the larger Middle East – there are people willing to kill and die in the most brutal fashion to eliminate their enemies, intimidate bystanders and expand their sphere of influence. In Iraq – and in the larger Middle East – there have to be winners and losers. And the winners had better be us.
What does victory look like? The proper comparison for Iraq is not 2003 vs. 2008. It is the regime of Saddam compared to the present and future Iraq. Saddam, who tossed an estimated 400,000 of his own people into mass graves; used poison gas on the Kurds; dried up the southern marshes, driving out the historic Shiite Marsh Arabs; used missiles on Tehran and Tel Aviv, threatening to “burn half of Israel”; and refused to acquiesce in UN requirements to verifiably dismantle his non-conventional weapons program – preferring UN sanctions that killed tens of thousands of Iraqi children, but enriched Saddam, his sons and their European benefactors.
All of that horror is gone. Yes, Iranian-sponsored Shiite militias and al Qaeda (needing a new home) temporarily replaced the old horrors with new horrors. Both thought the United States could be forced out and they would split, or fight over the dead carcass of Iraq. But American determination to stay, to nurture a government and to create a military have allowed regular Iraqis to express increasing disgust for radicalism, terrorism and armed jihad. Al Qaeda is nearly gone and the Mahdi Army increasingly despised. Today, Iraq’s largest Sunni parliamentary bloc, the National Concord Front, rejoined Prime Minister al-Maliki’s Cabinet after boycotting it for almost a year. This restores the broad-based, popularly elected government just in time to gear up for the multi-party, secret ballot, regional elections that will take place in the fall.
In this week of America’s Independence Day, we thank the millions of American solders from Bunker Hill to Baghdad and all the places in between, for pursuing victory. They are the guarantors of a strong, peaceful, democratic United States. Their victories in battle provide for our fireworks, flags and picnics – and, we believe, provide hope and reassurance for the people of the Middle East that moderation and modernity can prevail for them as well as for us.
That is victory. We are grateful for it and we hope the rabbi puts it back in his prayers.