The last great war, World War II, was a victory for the West over the last rise of fascism.  At that time the Fascism rose on the shoulders of racism.   In the current war on terror the fascist rose on the shoulders of religious extremism.  But very few remember clearly what happens when wars are over.  Too many focus on the ticker-tape parades and forget the reality.  All wars leave behind troubles, problems, messes and anger.  There is no kumbayah moment were all the peace breaks out at once.  This is not a Hollywood movie.

After World War II the world was actually left in really bad shape.  Russia took over half of Europe. Something everyone expected was to be a liberation turned into a massive prison behind an iron curtain, controlled at the point of a gun.  Berlin was under siege, US and British forces could only fly in supplies.  It looked like another war was about to break out between Europe and Russia.

In the Pacific the Chinese also turned to communism, and tried to also take over neighboring states. The alliance that had defeated Germany, Japan and Italy was at each other’s throats.  It was like some didn’t know when to stop fighting so they turned on each other.  This was the result of the greatest victory over evil in mankind’s history.  This was the result of the sacrifices made by the greatest generation alive (with those fighting the war on terror now a very, very close second).

In Korea a few years later China made its move to annex its neighbor.  After 4 years of nearly losing and nearly winning the West fought to a draw.  The result was a belligerent and cornered North Korea railing against its border with South Korea for decades as it impoverished its people into the worse mass slavery to a dictator in many centuries.  We have had to have massive forces focused on this caged animal for half a century, because we fought to a draw and not a decisive win (like in WW II).  We did not have the will in Korea so soon after WW II.

In Vietnam we tried to hide our hand for years, and then tried to do it on the cheap for years, and then let the media take victories and claim them as defeats.  It was useless war to start, but by not winning the aftermath was massive human atrocities on a scale no one can grasp in their minds.  The carnage is too great, and it rivals the carnage Hitler pulled off in Europe.  The only difference is this carnage came because we let ourselves lose.  Or more precisely we stopped ourselves from winning.  Vietnam was not that important strategically, which is why it could be given up as a tactical loss.  But the price paid by humankind for that short sighted end of hostilities was worse than all the deaths in the two large wars previously.

In WW II evil was beaten down.  In Korea it was contained.  In both cases the end results, while messy, included freedom from oppression and death for vast masses of humanity.  In Vietnam, because we buckled, all the dying by our forces simply resulted in more death after the war was over as the Khmer Rouge and North Vietnamese went on one of the most horrific killing sprees in the history of mankind.

Three wars, three different conclusions – all left behind troubles.  The farther from victory we end, the more troubles we’re left to deal with.  And the one loss resulted in more deaths afterwards than inflicted in combat – and they were all non-combatants dying.

Iraq will not see the fates of any of these wars, unless we want it to so much we screw up to make it happen.  IBD notes today that it is coming close to time where we can declare victory in Iraq.  Not yet of course, but we should start to prepare for it if conditions continue on their current path.

Back from the front, Gen. David Petraeus called on Congress Thursday to begin considering a drawdown of U.S. troops after five years of war. Violence in Iraq has plunged to its lowest levels since 2004, and al-Qaida is a tattered shadow of its formerself — key leaders dead, successors weak and recruiting down.

“My sense” Petraeus said, “is I will be able to make a recommendation (in the autumn) for further reductions.”

This is no Saigon-style exit, but a coming victorious end of a long conflict. U.S. forces have pounded al-Qaida into irrelevance.

No, this is not Vietnam.  And it is not Korea either.  And it is not WW II.  Iraq has the potential to have cost a fraction of the lives of these previous conflicts, and to end with the least troubles left behind.  Our regional enemies in Iran are so distraught over our success in Iraq they are rattling their cage in anger, threatening war if peace and an alliance with America breaks out!

A senior Iranian cleric on Friday slammed as treachery to Islam a security accord due to be sealed between Baghdad and Washington on the presence of American troops in Iraq.

…

“It is open-ended slavery. It is the worst humiliation.

“Any hand that signs such an agreement will be considered by Iran as a traitor to Islam, to Shiism and to the Iraqi people,” he added.

This kind of frustrated and scared reaction by Iran warms my heart – because it is the best indication yet we are making a huge difference in Iraq and the region.  Iran is losing its ability to sow death and destruction as it sees fit – their slave shackles.  Well then, we must be doing things right!

Iraq is full of hope now that the dark shadow of Islamo Fascism has been removed from the country.  Basra is happy, and the stories of Islamo Fascist atrocities on fellow muslims are echoing throughout the Muslim Street, destroying the cancer that is al-Qaeda and their ilk.  This is the memory of al-Qaeda in Iraq:

The insurgents targeted men and usually left women and the elderly alone, so Abu Hassan went into hiding and his mother and wife, both teachers, went to work, did the shopping and updated him on the world outside: the killings, the bombings, the deterioration of the neighborhood and eventually the turnaround. His wife is a Sunni, which helped ensure her safety, as long as nobody knew her Shiite husband was hiding at home.

That ‘turnaround’ was the combined Awakening and US troop Surge which worked side by side to fight off and destroy al-Qaeda.  Across the region from Lebanon to Afghanistan al-Qaeda is losing ground. And it started in Anbar, when Muslim allies of al-Qaeda realized who the real enemy of Islam was.  They realized it was al-Qaeda (since they were the ones killing the Iraqi Muslims by droves) and not the Americans.  Once this realization hit Iraq turned a corner, and so did Islam.  Even Moqtada al-Sadr realized that the bloodshed being committed by religious fanatics was backfiring in the Muslim Street:

Petraeus noted dissident Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr issued a cease-fire last fall, realizing the actions of certain militia elements “were creating problems” and actually undermining support for his movement.

That is why Sadr and his Sadrists sued for peace in Basra and Sadr City, they were losing the Muslim Street. They were being defeated and their only hope for survival was to sue for peace. That is why Iraqi forces now control most of the country and the Militias are now political movements and not independent armies. That is why Iraq is healing and integrating.

Here is the news, from Iraqis themselves, the Western media cannot seem to find time or space to report – it is all about progress and a bright future:

Since 2003, we have built the Kurdistan Region as a model for democracy and a gateway for development for all of Iraq. We are willing partners in this transition toward an Iraqi government that is representative of all its people. Through our peshmerga forces, we provide some of the most effective units against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. We Kurds are committed to a federal, democratic Iraq at peace within its borders and with its neighbours. 

We are working with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Iraqi leadership in Baghdad on the difficult issues facing our country. Our relationship with Iraq’s federal government has never been better. And progress is being made on an oil law, the status of disputed territories, the proper role for Iraq’s neighbours to play, and on relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey. 

There is much more brightness than dark in Iraq.   There is expanding hope and retreating Islamo Fascism. There is increasing security, and increasing frustration in Iran that it lost its opportunity to beat the Great Satan.   There is victory coming to Iraq and America.  And it will leave behind troubles and challenges.  All wars do.  

The question is whether to deal with these problems as the victor or the vanquished.  Too many on the left in the West yearn to be dealing with the mess of Iraq from a position of defeat.  They ignorantly believe this position will help their political aspirations back home.  Sadly for them victory creeps closer, and their political dreams start to fade in the face of the rising new Iraq.  

Americans, whether for or against the war, know down deep we need to work the lingering messes from the best vantage point possible.  And since we can attain the high ground of victory now, there is no reason for Americans to make Iraq more like Vietnam, with all the death and atrocities that would follow.   Amazingly, those who decry the death and destruction in Iraq the most now promote the idea of not only continuing it through our defeat, but amplifying it manifold by allowing the now beaten forces if Islamo Fascism to escape again to pillage and murder their fellow Muslims.  Now it is the left whose policies will surely bring about massive human sufferings to these people – and they cannot even admit it to themselves.