XDA

Here are the generally historically incorrect comments in the NYT today on our withdrawal from Iraq after victory in Gulf War II, the liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein. Read it and weep.

After grudgingly allowing that removal of Saddam was good the editorial retreats to America bashing:

But the list of errors and horrors in this war is inexcusably long, starting with a rush to invasion based on manipulated intelligence.

The left can't let go of lying about our nation's and the world's apparent intelligence failure in Iraq. Wrong but not manipulated. Did we also manipulate the spy shops in all the rest of the west who came to the same conclusion? The NYT is again wrong and absurdly so here. Also, when did any war go perfectly? In stunning victories over really tough opponents (Germany and Japan) we screwed the pooch in big ways-- the entire Italian campaign was one long ClusterF; as was the invasion of Palau, not to mention our defeats in the Philippines in the first place.

The NYT editors celebrate our victory by focusing on the mistakes we made, those proud patriots, and serve up this old chestnut:

America’s reputation has yet to fully recover from the horrors of Abu Ghraib.

Aw, the horror, the horror. Abu Ghraib must be just below Bergen Belsen in crimes against humanity, or just above initiations into Greek letter organizations every year at colleges all across America; it depends on actually putting the "horror" in context. There's more misguided finger pointing.

The country is still paying a huge price for President George W. Bush’s decision to shortchange the war in Afghanistan. American policy makers, for generations to come, must study these mistakes carefully and ensure that they are not repeated.

The good war versus the bad. After our near American casualty free ass-kicking of the Taliban in 2001, there was no more war to fight for a long time as the foe had fled the field to sanctuary in our putative ally, Pakistan. From that haven the Muslim extremists have launched recently increased efforts against the NATO coalition and it has become the major front of the Long War we're fighting because the extremists attacked us. Only someone with absolutely no idea of the real history of the war in Afghanistan could say we neglected it or say our efforts in Iraq caused shortages of anything there (other than an active enemy to fight).

The editors gloss over the total failure of the Obama administration to broker a deal to keep a few thousand American troops in Iraq (something even the Iraqis want) and then there's the big finish:

We celebrate [the troops'] return. But this country must never forget the intolerable costs of a war started on arrogance and lies.

We should forget the victory but remember our arrogance and lies.

Madre de Dios! There were no lies. And arrogance?

Liberating 25 million people from a brutal, Hitler-lite dictator is not arrogant or misguided.

Soundly defeating the extremists' efforts called al Qaeda in Iraq and showing the Muslim world who indeed was the weak horse and who the strong was not arrogant or misguided.

The very fact that we spent American lives to liberate strangers from an intolerable dictatorship makes the cost tolerable and the victory worth celebrating. The editors are 180 degrees wrong.

My good friend on the left is similarly sour on our victory and has bet me that there will be a new dictator in Iraq within two years of us leaving. OK, 728 days and counting. No dictator yet.

Labels: Gulf War II; Victory