Opinion: Obama Ignores That U.S. Won in Iraq...Twice

By Christian Whiton, Fox News

With President Obama’s announcement of total withdrawal from Iraq, Americans will again ponder the war that dominated the last decade, and which will preface what historians eventually write about America’s fate in the 21st century. The president’s epitaph Friday of a war he opposed, and would have had America lose, was hardly fitting.

In fact, America won the war in Iraq—twice.

In 2003, American arms, masterfully trained, equipped and commanded, destroyed Saddam Hussein’s army and regime with stunning speed and precision.

Later, an insurgency that at times resembled a civil war caused an appalling level of violence and terror in Iraq. Pent-up tensions in Iraqi society erupted into violence with the end of Saddam’s repression. Unwise U.S. political suzerainty, especially that of de facto viceroy Paul Bremmer, a member of the State Department’s foreign service, exacerbated the problems in Iraq.

Liberals counseled withdrawal. Most conservatives believed this would have led to another Vietnam-like defeat for the USA, with similar economic and security consequences. Then-President Bush decided instead to surge forces and implement a counterinsurgency strategy aimed at establishing security.

Mr. Obama, just after passing the second anniversary of his entry in the U.S. Senate, said, “I have been a consistent and strong opponent of this war.” He also assessed of the surge that “I cannot in good conscience support this escalation. It is a policy which has already been tried and a policy which has failed.”