5 years after illegal war : Bush hails strategic victory

(in his "global war on terror")

"............Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting … whether the fight is worth winning … and whether we can win it. The answers are clear to me: Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision – and this is a fight America can and must win… Over the past five years, we have seen moments of triumph and moments of tragedy. We have watched in admiration as 12 million Iraqis defied the terrorists, went to the polls, and chose their leaders in free elections. ........"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/19_03_08_bus...h.pdf

as with the Aznar interview on BBC 4 which is next on the otherpress section in this extraordinary series reporting on the depths of depraved & perverted hypocrisy shown by those world leaders who without legal or moral reason launched a war of agression five years ago - I recommend you fortify your senses with something strong. Industrial strength Ketamine might not be everyone's choice. Drink some robust whiskey instead - or emtpy your local herbal provider of camomile tea & distill it, or prepare yourself before reading these words with a novena of prayers & rogation of your choice. This is really serious stuff. One million people are dead. 600,000 of them are thought to be children. Western societies feel more at threat from foreign terrorism than ever before. The world economy has not as in previous decades comfortably made the shift to war production.

".........A little over a year ago, the fight in Iraq was faltering. Extremist elements were succeeding in their efforts to plunge Iraq into chaos… My administration understood that America could not retreat in the face of terror. We knew that if we did not act, the violence that had been consuming Iraq would have worsened, spread, and could eventually have reached genocidal levels.

Baghdad could have disintegrated into a contagion of killing, and Iraq could have descended into full-blown sectarian warfare. So we reviewed our strategy – and changed course in Iraq. We sent reinforcements into the country in a dramatic policy shift that has become known as "the surge."…

The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around – it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror. For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al-Qaida rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al-Qaida out. In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his terror network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated…

The challenge in the period ahead is to consolidate the gains we have made and seal the extremists' defeat. We have learned through hard experience what happens when we pull our forces back too fast – the terrorists and extremists step in … fill the vacuum … establish safe havens … and use them to spread chaos and carnage. …

The successes we are seeing in Iraq are undeniable – yet some in Washington still call for retreat. War critics can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq – so now they argue the war costs too much. In recent months we have heard exaggerated estimates of the costs of this war.

No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure – but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq.

If we were to allow our enemies to prevail in Iraq, the violence that is now declining would accelerate – and Iraq could descend into chaos. Al-Qaida would regain its lost sanctuaries and establish new ones – fomenting violence and terror that could spread beyond Iraq's borders, with serious consequences to the world economy.........."

_____________________________________

related links for the hard :-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/19/georgebush.usa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7305023.stm

the complete text of George W. Bush speaking to the Pentagon March 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/19_03_08_bus...h.pdf