Say Anything Blog

The article doesn’t mention any praise for America specifically for making this progress in Iraq possible - though that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there - but even barring that who thought this day would ever come?

Certainly nobody who sides with the Democrat party and their mouthpieces in the media on this issue.

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - World leaders, including UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on Thursday hailed Baghdad’s progress in combatting violence and stabilising Iraq.

A declaration adopted by 100 delegations at a Stockholm conference said the participants “recognised the important efforts made by the (Iraqi) government to improve security and public order and combat terrorism and sectarian violence across Iraq.”

It also acknowledged political and economic progress made, and said that “given the difficult context, these successes are all the more remarkable.”

In a speech earlier to the conference, Ban said Iraq was “stepping back from the abyss that we feared most,” adding that with international help the war-torn country could fulfill its “vision of becoming a free, secure, stable and prosperous nation.”

And who made all that possible?  America.  Specifically, the Bush administration.

The Democrats can accuse Bush of lying this country into an “illegal” and “immoral” war “for oil” all they want.  They can accuse him of misguided foreign policy, and of lessening position in the middle east and the world.  But the truth is that the success in Iraq we’re seeing right now is because of President Bush.  He sought to liberate that much-oppressed country in a region brimming with extremism and totalitarianism, and he did it despite widespread and wrong-headed international opposition.

Bush’s loudest critics in the international community - people such as the leaders of Canada, France and Germany - have been replaced by more America-friendly leaders, and now that the international community at-large seems willing to at least acknowledge success in Iraq it’s hard not to say that Bush’s decision to invade Iraq has been completely exonerated.

Hard not to say, that is, for honest observers.  People more concerned with partisan politics than sound foreign policy will undoubtedly think otherwise.