The Command Post - Op-Ed - Reality Check: George W. Bush Has Liberated More People Than Any Leader In The History Of The World: 50 million

March 19, 2004

Reality Check: George W. Bush Has Liberated More People Than Any Leader In The History Of The World: 50 million

This is an historic accomplishment which makes Bush one of the greatest world leaders in history. Bush's accomplishments for the advancement of world peace, freedom, and democracy, dwarf anything done by anyone who has ever won a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns were just military campaigns without peer. The U.S. and its Coalition partners liberated 50 million people from the brutal dictatorships of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.

This feat was accomplished in 24 months - at a cost, to date, of approximately 500 U.S. soliders.

Let's be clear. This was a military campaign stunning in its: (1) swift success, (2) unvarnished good result for the benefit of 50 million people, the region, and the world, and (3) remarkably low loss of life on all sides of the conflict, both military and civilian.

This is the military campaign against which all future military campaigns toppling dictatorships must be judged and compared.

Compared to this campaign, the military campaigns undertaken by Democrat Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, and FDR seem barbaric and grotesque. And, of course, these former military campaigns were all justified and just.

For good measure, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt (and Bill Clinton in Kosovo, for that matter) were all 'chicken-hawks': the left's current slur du jour.

For any American - for any citizen of a democracy - to not be proud and grateful for the military success of the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns of the Bush Administration borders on a wish for a decline of freedom and democracy in the world. In this regard, critics of the Bush Administration's stunning success in these two military campaigns are fairly called unpatriotic, anti-freedom, and anti-democracy.

Of course, critics of these Bush Administration military campaigns have every right under the First Amendment to espouse their views. As do I.

For critics of these two military campaigns to criticize such unparalleled success - the freeing of millions of oppressed peoples - places them firmly on the side of history's losers: Napolean, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, the USSR, Communist Eastern Europe, Communist Cuba, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein.

The only wonder is that anyone criticizing the Bush Administration's stunning military successes - for the great good of millions of formerly brutalized Arabs and Muslims - is not immediately labeled as anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-democracy, and anti-freedom.

Here's hoping for the continued success of the forces for democracy and freedom.

The above link is via Instapundit - who linked to the original piece by Victor Davis Hanson in National Review Online.

See, also, the background material on the Iraq military campaign, and post-war Iraq, at the Whitehouse's site, "Renewal in Iraq."

April 18, 2003 - Northern Baghdad, IRAQ Marines from 2nd Battalion 5th Marines Regimental Combat Team Five (RCT 5) 1st MARDIV out of Camp Pendleton Calif., pause for a routine stop during a convoy. Lance Cpl. Seam M Langley from Lexington, Ky., interacts with a local civilian family during the convoy. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lacne Cpl. James P. Aguilar)

The young boy with Lance Corporal Langley above will now grow up in freedom - and not under Saddam Hussein's brutal dictatorship. This may be beside-the-point to John Kerry. It is most assuredly not beside-the-point to this young boy or his family. Neither is it beside-the-point to the security of the Middle East, the United States, or the world.

We should give Corporal Langley - and the Bush Administration for its stunningly successful and just military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq - the praise they deserve.

Orson Scott Card agrees.

This is a duplicate of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

Posted By nikita demosthenes at March 19, 2004 10:27 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Victor Davis Hanson on the right versus Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, and Maureen Dowd on the left - just no contest...

Posted by: Dave T. at March 19, 2004 03:29 PM

Thank you for the historical perspective. This is an excellent post that offers some real context to the events of the past few years.

Posted by: Zachariah at March 19, 2004 04:27 PM

It is a shame that most of the elite media can't begin to see or realize the accomplishments of the Bush presidency. Great post

Posted by: Curtis at March 19, 2004 06:44 PM

"For any American-for any citizen of a democracy-to not be proud and grateful for the military success of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns of the Bush administration borders on a wish for a decline of freedom and democracy in the world"

And...

"For critics of these two military campaigns to criticize such unparallelled success -the freeing of millions of oppressed peoples-places them firmly on the sides of historys losers..."

X, are you listening?

Fantastic article. Proud to be an American. Makes me wish I were a guy, or physically stronger so I could go into the services...

Posted by: coastygirl at March 19, 2004 09:50 PM

If you call liberation a crumbling infrastructure, staggering unemployment, almost daily bombing attacks, a virtual non-government, more civilian deaths than the WTC attacks and the flooding of foreign terrorists...then yeah..I guess the article is true.

Posted by: dnice at March 20, 2004 12:10 AM

The truth is, people will not begin to appreciate fully what Bush has achieved until the war is long over and people can look back on it without emotion. At the moment, it is far too close and raw for people to judge it objectively.

Like the subject matter of this post, I believe that history will look at it as an extremely positive achievement. It is undeniably a noble aim, and so far has been succesful.

So why is there things like security issues? What about not enough electricity, and open sewers etc?

Well, anyone who has ever built anything themselves (as opposed to watching someone else do it from afar) knows that when constructing something, it can get messy. For about 80% of the construction process, things look bad - building sites for example look like wasteland unfinished, model kits look unpainted and in pieces etc. But at the last fifth of the construction phase, things start coming together and working out. Then ultimately they are completed.

I guess I am saying that the reconstruction of Iraq is like a building half-finished. From someone who has never constructed anything before, it looks a mess. Things aren't perfect. But then construction is like that - it takes time for things to snap into place. But in the not too distant future, things will start to come together. Democracy will start to happen. Services will start to run again.

In short, people who criticise the Iraq campaign for little details like poor electricity and water supply will be made to look foolish in the long run. Things like running water can and will be fixed with enough political will, leaving nothing for the critics to complain about.

So give Bush and Blair a break and let them get on with it. Given the chance to carry out the job to the end, they will prevail.

Posted by: Daniel Polwarth at March 20, 2004 07:20 AM

What about the 290 million he is bilking and
going to enslave with Low wages to compete with
outsourcing. I had to call AOL and got a customer
service person in India !!! AMERICA On Line ??????
Changing ISP's SOON.. Trying to straighten a
problem was Super stressful, dealing with the
accent, Plus a bad connection. Outsourcing is
Great..For Everyone Else... He is the leader of
the World so the US Has to wait in line to
benefit. Have to sole Iraq's problems, then there
is Afghanistan, throw in..The rest of the World,
on the Backs of Americans to benefit His buddies
(bribers).. No Wonder the defict is SO high.
It will be cut in half in 5 yrs ?? Tell me
ANOTHER LIE !!. WMD's, mobile trailers, terrorists
in Iraq (Yea, NOW!), rose petals and rice a roni,
Iraq will Pay for it's Own rebuilding (200Bil US
Dollars and Counting), 395Bil $ Medicare bill.
That's Close to 550Bil the way they add at Yale,
Harvard, and MIT. Fuzzy Math... and if you Can't
add the way We do, as The Donald would say,
You're Fired.

Ohh, I Love the Dumb Conserves.. They have a
Dumb Pied Piper and BELIEVE Him..LOLOL How Dumb
are they ?? Duuuhhh!! Dooon't Knooow. Tooo Duumb.

Posted by: VF at March 20, 2004 07:55 AM

VF,

It is obvious you never took Economics 101.
Did you even finish elementary school?

Posted by: leaddog2 at March 20, 2004 09:49 AM

extermin8:

My statement in my prior post - that Bush has liberated 50 million Muslims from dictatorial regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq - is entirely accurate, as you probably know.

See my original post at:

http://www.command-post.org/oped/2_archives/011023.html

If you dispute this, you should indicate why. The fact of the matter, however, can hardly be disputed.

Liberals, undoubtedly, don�t like the fact that Bush has liberated 50 million people from Islamic totalitariansim, but the fact remains.

Posted by: nikita demosthenes at March 22, 2004 05:01 PM