Nouri al Maliki

Today's Opinion Journal carries a message to the American people from Nouri al Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq.

War being what it is, the images of Iraq that come America's way are of car bombs and daily explosions. Missing from the coverage are the great, subtle changes our country is undergoing, the birth of new national ideas and values which will in the end impose themselves despite the death and destruction that the terrorists have been hell-bent on inflicting on us. Those who endured the brutality of the former regime, those who saw the outside world avert its gaze from their troubles, know the magnitude of the change that has come to Iraq. A fundamental struggle is being fought on Iraqi soil between those who believe that Iraqis, after a long nightmare, can retrieve their dignity and freedom, and others who think that oppression is the order of things and that Iraqis are doomed to a political culture of terror, prisons and mass graves. Some of our neighbors have made this struggle more lethal still, they have placed their bets on the forces of terror in pursuit of their own interests.

"..the birth of new national ideas and values which will in the end impose themselves despite the death and destruction..."  Iraq and the Middle East have been permanently changed, and although the difference most visible to Americans is the rampant violence, there is a more important change.  Fouad Ajami provides a glimpse of what Iraq had been with this observation in The Foreigner's Gift (2006).

A traveler taking the road southward is treated to the unsentimental logic of the Baathist regime.  The approaches in and out of the city were places that Saddam Hussein had been careful to control.  By the side of the road there were towns and housing settlements for his praetorian guard and for the men of his regime.  The Saddam regime would have lasted a thousand years had the Americans not come in and decapitated it.  The system of control had left nothing to chance: the capital was like a city under siege.  (p. 5)

Iraq has changed.  There is now a path forward toward reconciliation and peace that simply did not exist before.

Comments

[political forums]

Yet, recent reports have also indicated that violence has actually increased as the surge is going on. Also, there have been reports by two generals that give an abysmal appraisal on the status of Iraqi police and military forces. I think we need to stay in Iraq, and I'm not in favor of withdrawal, but we must have an accurate understanding of the situation, if we are to prevail in it.

[Tom Bowler]

Although the purpose of the surge is to provide security in Baghdad, a complaint has been that while violence has gone down in Baghdad it has gone up in Anbar and Diyala. The downside for al Qaeda is that Sunni tribes of Anbar and Diyala have joined the fight against them. Violence may have increased, but it is still not at the level it was in December 2006. We can expect more.

Anticipate that al Qaeda will pull out all the stops between now and September. Congressional Democrats have set up another confrontation on funding to occur then. It's an invitation to the terrorists. If they can do enough damage to give Democrats the pretext of declaring that there has been no progress, Democrats in return will do their utmost to hand them victory by voting to cut off the funding for the war.

Yes we must have an accurate understanding of the situation. The crucial battles in the war happen in Washington. If the war is to be lost, it will be lost there.