The Pendragon's Hall

It is ironic how individuals are never known for what they want to be known for. Bush came to office in 2001 promising a lot of things: compassionate conservatism, social security reform, tax cuts, education reform, prescription drug benefits and the beefing up of the American military. What will he be known for? The Iraq War. Three years and the people who apparently thought it would take three months to rebuild a whole country too used to tyranny and dictatorship are still not done bellyaching. I am worried and disappointed by the escalating recent violence and beginning to doubt whether a true Islamic state can also be democratic (more on this another time) but the naysayers overlook a very important success in Iraq. Perhaps, as Francis Fukyama laments, Iraq has become a magnet for terrorists to fight the United States, but they are no longer in the government. Although the ultimate goal, of course, is eradication of terrorism, only an idiot would think that is doable in such a short time. I'll settle for keeping them contained in Iraq, fighting to reinstate a government friendly to them. If they're busy doing that, they can't be over here bombing buildings and subways. Under Saddam Hussein, the terrorists always had a state to flee to, so they could focus on the actual terror. Now, they don't have that anymore. This is a victory in and of itself. Will a Jeffersonian democracy ever emerge from the chaos that is Iraq? Maybe, maybe not. But right now, the terrorists are struggling to keep Iraq in a state that they can use to their advantage and not everything is going their way, contrary to what the whiners will tell you. And before anybody starts on me about how Saddam was a secularist, hated by the religious extremists, the 9/11 hijackers left bills on their credit cards for strip clubs and bars and yet Osama bin Laden kind of liked them. That's about as secular as it gets. Terrorists will use anything they can to strike at the US and the less things we give them the better. That is what the war in Iraq is all about and like another US president whose war dragged on longer than the "90 days" the newspapers predicted, I think Bush will be vindicated by history. Look for his name in the "top ten" if you're still alive in fifty years.