Category: Anti-Terrorism A War on Terrorism by Richard R. Tryon
After 27 months of fighting the War against Terror it is possible to now take stock to see how are we doing?

Score Card in Iraq as of 12-25-03
by Richard R. Tryon

or

A review of the war in Iraq as of 12-25-03
by Richard R. Tryon

Thanks to Chuck Cable and his friends, we have a bit of a score card in Iraq. The only thing missing is a poll to show Saddam's plunge from 100% voter approval to only a handful of those who were his henchmen and deserve to be put away.

Most Americans are used to seeing important matters like the World Series take as many as seven games to decide the outcome and declare the world championship! These same folks like to think that all other major issues of importance should be resolved in a similar time period including, of course, the preliminary season before the finals when everyone needs to watch.

In the months before the time came to know that Saddam was not about to surrender, President Bush tried to get Saddam to realize his mistake. Somehow the associates around Saddam told him what he wanted to hear. Only Allah is greater than Saddam and the whole world is out to stop America from intervention in their private party! Their allies sure tried hard to convince Bush that he dared not upset the balance in the perfect world of the middle east.

Saddam already knew that he had won the Persian Gulf War of 1991 because he was still in power and only lost the stolen province of Kuwait and a little damage to his main army because the Americans stopped too soon in fear of Russian reprisals and lack of UN support.

Only President Bush #43 did not back down and he knew of the tactics being used to stall in the UN and to try to fool all into thinking that Saddam was not a threat to world peace. A million or two dead in Iraq and Iran, if they could speak, would help change that erroneous image!

How anyone can manage to witness what has happened and find fault because minute evidences of WMD have not been put on display only shows how well organized proponents of the dictatorship have been. No doubt some may have used an important fear factor in their minds as a reason to do battle. Others, who supported the need to stop Saddam and all others of his ilk in a War on Terror, might have gone out of the way to advise Americans that we might free the Iraqi people and not quickly find either the evidence or the intent to build WMD. But,that was not the main reason for going into battle mode!

What then was the real reason? To make billions for U.S. business instead of letting it go to the French, Germans and Russians? No, that was not the reason, but a lot of risk is being taken by U.S. firms with good rewards to provide what is needed to remake Iraq and a whole new political culture in the region.

The root cause of the War on Terror is religious zealots from Saudia Arabian origin who still have their master leader Osama bin Laden hiding in the mountains where it is much harder to find someone than it turned out to be in Tikrit, Iraq. A bin Laden needs money and a safe haven in which to train his brand of religious hate mongers. It takes money from places that have a lot of it and Iraq's leader, who surrendered without a fight, was finding ways to get it with the help of the U.N. which is always a sucker for human rights and humanitarian looking issues. Save the children is an excuse to let bad things happen and Saddam worked that game hard and won an impressive array of palaces, and armaments from it. He was hoping to lead the entire middle east by taking out his enemies systematically. Iran refuse to lose and Israel is always ready to take out any nearby WMD that can be targeted.

One of the major results not mentioned below in the report from Iraq is that our men and women in Iraq have been supported by a U.S. government that has also convinced no less a wild man than the Libyan dictator to give up his quest for WMD. There are others to follow!

Here is the local score card in Iraq as seen by those out there counting...Look for the score to show more and more advances, fewer set-backs and fewer Iraqis still on the loose with dangerous weapons.

Given such positive news in the next ten months, and similar improvements in the economy, it is going to be hard to make the American public want to believe that George Bush was elected by one Supreme Court vote (another issue went his way 7-2 but the papers like to write about one that went just 5-4) and that he has failed to be a good leader.

Hillary Clinton thinks she can win in 2008 and doesn't want to run in '04; but she doesn't want to see anyone else win but Bush in '04. If she sees someone looking that good in '04, she will have to run too and risk losing and not look like a candidate in '08.

Why politicians need to consider such details is one of the perils of the profession.
Now take a look at the Iraq score board!



Marines and Sailors,

As we approach the end of the year I think it is important to share a few thoughts about what you've accomplished, directly in some cases, and indirectly in many others. I am speaking about what the Bush Administration and each of you has contributed by wearing the uniform, because the fact that you wear the uniform contributes 100% to the capability of the nation
to send a few onto the field to execute national policy. As you read about these achievements you are a part of I would call your attention to two things:
1. This is good news that hasn't been "judged" fit to print or report on TV.

2. It is much easier to point out the errors a man makes when he makes the tough decisions, rarely is the positive as aggressively pursued.

Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1...

... the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.

... over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.

... nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.

... the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.

... on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts-exceeding the prewar average.

... all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.

... by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled.

... teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.

... all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.

... doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.

... pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.

... the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccinations to Iraq's children.

... a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.

... we have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.

... there are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000 by year-end.

... the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.

... 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.

... Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.

... the central bank is fully independent.

...Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.

...Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.

... satellite TV dishes are legal.

... foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for "minders" and other government spies.

... there IS no Ministry of Information.

... there are more than 170 newspapers.

... you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.

... foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go.

... a nation that had not one single element - legislative, judicial or executive - of a representative government, now does.

... in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils. Baghdad's first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected its new chairman.

... today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.

... 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.

... the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events. Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30
Iraqi embassies around the world.

... Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't.

... for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.

... the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.

... Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games, or murdering critics.

... children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government.

... political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.

... millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.

... Saudis will hold municipal elections.

...Qataris reforming education to give more choices to parents.

...Jordanis accelerating market economic reforms.

... the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian -- a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace.

... Saddam is gone.

...Iraq is free.

... President Bush has not faltered or failed.

... Yet, little or none of this information has been published by the Press corps that prides itself on bringing you all the news that's important.

Iraq under US lead control has come further in six months than Germany did in seven years or Japan did in nine years following WWII. Military deaths from fanatic Nazi's, and Japanese numbered in the thousands and continued for over three years after WWII victory was declared.

It took the US over four months to clear away the twin tower debris, let alone attempt to build something else in its place.

Now, take into account that Congress fought President Bush on every aspect of his handling of this country's war and the post-war reconstruction; and that they continue to claim on a daily basis on national TV that this conflict has been a failure.

Taking everything into consideration, even the unfortunate loss of our brothers and sisters in this conflict, do you think anyone else in the world could have accomplished as much as the United States and the Bush administration in so short a period of time?

These are things worth writing about. Get the word out. Write to someone you think may be able to influence our Congress or the press to tell the story.

Above all, be proud that you are a part of this historical precedent.

God Bless you all. Have a great Holiday.

Semper Fidelis,

CO



So, how does this relate to the bigger picture? We determined as a nation after 9-11 that the ancient problem of terror in the world had taken on a new dimension. One where weapons of mass destruction could be obtained by zealots to be used with terrible consequences upon Americans living in the nations fifty states and territories.

We set about to do something realizing that a terrorist like bin Laden did not belong to any nation so it was hard to think of a war being one of the traditional type where armies struggle for control of territory. We did find that he had a significant level of monetary support from Saudi Arabia which provided most of the hijackers in the 9-11 attack as well as bin Laden himself, who had taken over the nation of Afghanistan by co-opting the Muslim Taliban party.

That battle lasted two months before the Taliban and bin Laden were ousted. The leaders Omar and Osama are still hiding in the mountains and impossible to find. Next we focused on Iraq because its dictator was working to be the leader of the entire Arab world, had oil money, and an absolutely perfect record of trying to develop and hide WMD.

Now that battle has reached the point where we are trying to reconstruct in Iraq that which took seven years in Germany after WWII. But even though the level of destruction in Iraq was a lot less than in Germany, its infrastructure was in bad shape anyway. We are hoping to make it work well enough to impress the U.S. voters that it was a good idea to risk and lose the lives of a number of our military in order to spare the homeland of moreattacks like 9-11. So far, it has!
So far, the military is proud of its record and the support from the President and most of the American people. Some political types have to disagree in order to campaign for election. To date their arguments are not convincing many and the nation seems to know that it is painful to have to wage war, but the need was clear and the results will justify the costs.

Will the world as well as the American voters come to agree in 2004? That is the question. I have no doubt that the Iraqi people will continue to applaud the removal of Saddam's clan.