Hurrah Hurrah, what a week. We've seen the first day of spring and the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. So many docudramas, documentaries and news reports to choose from, from the award winning 'Battle for Haditha' to Dispatches specials, and of course to the semi-revealing efforts of John Snow. Yesterday as President Bush spoke in a speech marking the anniversary, saying that US work with Sunni Muslims in Iraq was yielding the first large-scale Arab uprising against Al-Qaeda, many held anti-war protests in several U.S cities amid continued opposition to the war. But despite all the media hype and independent reports about political stability since the invasion, the question on everyone's minds is still: Has Iraq improved? It would seem that glancing at figures related to violence in recent months that levels look to have gone down, but does it really have anything directly to do with the operations of coalition forces?
The answer is of course yes, for without the removal of people like the infamous Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Al-Qaeda's most detested war criminal after Bin Laden himself, the Iraqi Government would find it almost impossible to sustain enough confidence in the country to be established at all. And despite what lies we might hear from those who detest the U.S and all it's allies, coalition forces are not occupying Iraq, but are there to do a job; to eradicate the insurgency in Iraq and the remnants of the Iraqi Army under Ba'ath Party rule. Once this has been done, with the help of the Iraqi Government, coalition forces can begin to withdraw. I find it harrowing whenever I hear people imply that Al-Qaeda in Iraq 'might have a point' in fighting foreign invaders, even though the majority of Al Qaeda in Iraq are in fact foreign fighters. Jordanians, Egyptians, Saudi Arabians, Algerians, the list goes on and on, but that is how the left justify themselves. The 'It's their country and we're not meant to be there' mentality perpetuated by the left, is the same ignorant twaddle which assumes that Christmas Carol services in primary schools are an affront to Islam. Despite the fact that Jesus is accepted by Muslims as a Prophet, and is mentioned in the Koran.
As I've spoken of before, these facts do not matter to the left. All they want to see is the complete secularisation of schools, the failure of coalition forces in Iraq, and the overall de-stabilisation of the establishment. If the neo-conservative Bush administration were to fail in attempting to rid the world of Al-Zawahiris and Al-Zarqawis, the left would deem it a great success. For to see such a mightily strong super-power fall at the hands of liberal adolescents shouting 'I told you so', would give them more credibility than they could ever achieved by conventional means. A tempting prospect which has been to hard to resist for those without morality or honour. Political gain to them, is more important than than the future of Iraq, or the removal of zealous mass murderers.
There is a difference between being a coward and being able to question the actions of Western forces abroad. Watching 'Battle for Haditha' on Channel 4 last week, it did not shock or surprise me to see the biased representation of American Marines killing Iraqi civilians, after all that's how awards are won. But for a few moments I did begin to question our very presence in a country which would do our reputation no good. Being a free thinker is important in this day and age, and I would remind anyone reading to always question, to always think independently. Questioning an invasion that I've always supported wasn't easy, but I see that it was healthy, for how many people against the invasion have ever dabbled on the other side of the fence for a few moments? just to see how it fits. I could see on screen the violent shooting of women, children and old men, along with the sound of shouting Americans and rapid machine-gun fire.
I knew the story was probably true, I knew that those innocent people who were shot for no reason other than to satisfy anger probably did feel pain; and I was truly sad. For me to feel anything but despair for another human being in pain or harms way would make me in-human; a stone without a conscience. For a split-second I detested every American, every Westerner, every soldier; and I hoped that one day some IED might blow those evil men to pieces. Then I remembered. I remembered the trusting jump suited American Nick Berg, the Liverpudlian Ken Bigley and others who have been subjected to horrific deaths at the hands of the insurgency. Where was the justice in that? I do not for one moment think that the lives of those really killed in Haditha were worth any less than those of Berg and Bigley, and that is how we should see all injustices, as equally bad.
It is easy to forget that we are at war every day. Even if Britain pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan tomorrow, we would still be fighting against the vast network of terrorist cells which are spread across Europe. The current main battlefield in the 'War on Terror' is in Iraq and Afghanistan. But what does the left think will happen if we withdraw our troops from those countries, apart from the emergence of two more rogue states. Do they think that jihadis will stay in those countries happy that we have gone? The current situation in Iraq acts as a jihadi magnet in the region, attracting terrorists of all nationalities to fight its newest tourist attraction, Western forces. But if the forces leave for the borders of home, the jihadis will surely follow, and IED's might begin to be planted on our roads instead. War is a horrible thing, and wicked men will always use it as an excuse to do things which we simply cannot advocate. Such actions have blinded people's judgement in many past wars, but winning this war is what should be focused on the most five years after the invasion.
For the betterment of future generations, the world must be made a safer and fairer place now, and the 'War on Terror' is plays a major part in that. We in the West should be promoting Democracy and Justice to those in Iraq, for if we are not convinced that the insurgency is wrong, then why should they be?...
(Picture 1: Baghdad and the Tigris in March 2003.)
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