by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/p>\n In the present chaos in Iraq, of course, the war’s purpose and outcome seem clouded. But in five years, if we persevere, there will be a stable consensual government, and then both Iraq and Afghanistan will properly be seen as the anchors of a new Middle East, one whose democratic origins were fraught with controversy\u2014as was (Ronald) Reagan’s new bellicosity with the Soviet Union in the 1980s\u2014but ultimately both successful and humane in eroding the fascistic landscape that fostered global terror and mass murder at home.<\/p>\n The three-week toppling of Saddam Hussein was brilliant. Its rocky aftermath reminds us that the ancient laws of war still prevail: Despite high technology and globalized communications, the degree of postbellum stability is directly proportionate to the sense of defeat, and, yes, humiliation, experienced by the enemy — something not quite achieved since the 4th Division never came down from Turkey into the Sunni triangle, that was thus left relatively untouched during the conventional war.<\/p>\n We can recite and lament the myriad subsequent mistakes — tolerance for looting, unguarded borders, failure to keep intact the Iraqi army, arms depots not destroyed or too prominent a public presence of Americans. But error is the story of all wars; instead the key is to what degree were these lapses fatal to the overall cause of securing a democratic Iraq? So far, none of them need be.<\/p>\n We are in a postmodern age, where globalization, instant communication and the spread of moral equivalence make it hard to wage necessary wars against ogres like the Taliban or Saddam Hussein, since few believe in evil, much less of the need to eradicate it through force. The U.S. military not only must lose none of its own, but is expected to kill few of the enemy either\u2014requisites almost impossible to satisfy.<\/p>\n \u00a92004 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What will be remembered? by Victor Davis Hanson San Francisco Chronicle In the present chaos in Iraq, of course, the war’s purpose and outcome seem clouded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[803],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1bu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2238,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-war-in-afghanistan\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":0},"title":"The War in Afghanistan","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Two-Front Wars \u2014 Theirs and Ours Something is not quite right about the conventional wisdom about the Afghanistan war. For nearly eight years, yearly casualties in Afghanistan sometimes were less than a month's losses in the dire days in Iraq (e.g., 98 Americans killed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-tale-of-two-surges\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":1},"title":"A Tale of Two Surges","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services From 2007 to 2009, a surge of 20,000 troops under the generalship of David Petraeus saved a mostly lost war in Iraq. Petraeus\u2019s counterinsurgency doctrine helped win over the population, as the surge in troops gave greater security to Iraq\u2019s government and military.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2066,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/our-flip-flopping-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":2},"title":"Our Flip-Flopping Wars","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services We don't hear all that much about Iraq these days, do we? The war at one point almost tore apart this country. Public anger sent George W. Bush's approval ratings plummeting. And the outrage over our losses helped elect vocal anti-Iraq-war candidate Barack\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2009"","block_context":{"text":"December 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/december-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2990,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/phony-war-afghanistan-and-the-democrats\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":3},"title":"Phony War: Afghanistan and the Democrats","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson World Affairs Most Americans in 2003 thought that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were complementary theaters in the wider war on radical Islamic terrorism and the authoritarian Middle East regimes that aided and abetted it. The anti-Iraq War left agreed that the two fronts were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2009"","block_context":{"text":"January 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/january-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1518,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/afghanistan-agonistes\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":4},"title":"Afghanistan Agonistes","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online The growing consensus is that the United States and its NATO allies cannot prevail in their aim of creating a stable constitutional government in Afghanistan, free of radical Taliban insurrectionists who will facilitate terrorism beyond their borders and seek to reinstitute their medieval\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2010"","block_context":{"text":"July 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/july-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2319,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/war-what-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":4556,"position":5},"title":"War–What War?","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services The anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan headed to Martha's Vineyard this week, where President Obama is vacationing. Once again she is protesting our two wars abroad. But Sheehan is a media has-been. 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