Iraq Isn't Hopeless

There are a lot of doom and gloom articles around the Internet today that are painting a dire picture of the the situation in Iraq. Most of them are on news agencies like the Associated Press, CNN, the BBC, et cetera, which opposed the Iraq War in the first place. Well, Newsweek is usually worthless, but this article is worth reading.

Now, I don't agree completely with the author; I think that the "theoretical" claims about the implementation of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy are overstated, the criticism of the size and makeup of the invading force is ignorant, and the claims that it was American policies that limited the size of the initial coalition are flat out nonsense. However, that's not the point.

I agree with his central message: the Iraq War may have cost us more at this point than we initially believed it would, but it was still the right thing to do. It sought to correct policies that weren't working (Oil-for-Food, sanctions, U.N. inspections), it removed a brutal tyrant with an undeniable track record of state sponsorship of terrorism and pursuit of illegal weapons programs. Things are rough in Iraq, but individuals like Ayatollah Sistani, Ayad Allawi, and various other figures are leaders in the greatest sense of the word, and the situation is more promising than many critics of the Bush Administration are willing to admit.

Go read it for yourself.