5 Marines were killed in Iraq yesterday. The more than 2000 U.S. troops lost in Iraq makes me want to vomit. But now, as calls to pull our troops out of Iraq grow, I fear that a premature withdrawal will lead to an even greater disaster than the sacrifices already made. Cutting and running now would render this ultimate in human toll meaningless. Unfortunately, the great gains that have come from American sacrifices go under-reported.

Iraqis are learning the intricacies of democratic politics, as “accountability has taken root.” Coalitions are being formed and reshuffled. Pundits are speculating on party endorsements. A free press is flourishing. Millions have voted in two rounds of elections. Sunnis participated big-time in most recent elections, allaying all the fears about whether they were “engaged” (the link is from Aljazeera). With a new constitution ratified — the vote endorsed by the UN — Iraqis are entering the final stretch in proving that democracy can work in an Arab country (the Lebanese have recently proved that, too).

Iraq’s economy is booming (see here also). Though still “fragile,” it grew an astonishing 50% last year. Some investors see the country as an opportunity, despite all the bad news. On Tuesday, the United Gulf Bank (UGB) of Bahrain increased its holdings in Iraq’s Bank of Baghdad from $3.6 million to $36 million. According to Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute,

Ordinary Iraqis are financially better off now than they were at any time in the past two decades. According to World Bank and International Monetary Fund estimates, per capita income has doubled since 2003. Iraq’s per capita gross domestic product is today almost twice that of Yemen and nearing that of Egypt and Syria, hardly a sign of failure in a country in which, just three years ago, antiwar groups insisted children were starving en masse. Statistics aside, the Iraqi economic boom is apparent to anyone who visits an Iraqi market. Not only are appliances and luxuries in the stores, but customers are actually purchasing them.

Iraqis today employ technologies that were nonexistent or off-limits to all but the Baathist elite just three years ago. As of September 2005, there were more than 3.5 million cell-phone subscribers in Iraq, for example. Under the Baath party, there was no cell-phone service, and possession of satellite phones was a capital offense. Internet cafés dot not only Baghdad thoroughfares, but also dusty back streets in provincial towns. When I visited the (restored) marshlands of southern Iraq, I checked my e-mail and sent dispatches from internet cafes not only in the Maysan provincial capital of al-Amarah and the Dhi Qar provincial capital of Nasiriyah, but also in small, dusty towns like Islah, a Dawa stronghold on the edge of the marshes.

Is Iraq becoming the “next Vietnam,” or is it being made into one?

John Murtha - a decorated Vietnam War veteran - said US troops had become “a catalyst for violence” in Iraq. …

“Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency, they are united against US forces, and we have become a catalyst for violence,” Mr Murtha said at an emotional news conference in Washington.

We’re causing the insurgency? A speedy American withdrawal is just what the jihadists want – to fulfill their dream of creating an Islamist caliphate in the heart of the Middle East, then spreading it. This is what al-Qaeda says in its own words – and it makes all sorts of racist statements against Iraq’s Shiites.

Many of the war critics legitimize Iraqi terrorists merely by labeling their atrocities as an “insurgency,” not the ethnic and religious cleansing that it really is. 26,000 Iraqi civilians have died at the hands of these “insurgents.”

While the Bush administration has certainly made some blunders in Iraq, Fareed Zakaria – nobody’s yes man, thinks that the neocons have “finally” implemented “a smart Iraq strategy.” Do we now feed Iraqis to the dogs?

We lost 400,000 in WWII, but Europe and Japan are flourishing free-market democracies. We lost 30,000 in Korea, and South Korea is one of the world’s wealthiest and freest nations. When we cut and run in Vietnam, after losing 50,000 men, the communists killed far more people than were lost in the war — all in the name of “re-education.” Cutting and running from Iraq would be an equally senseless tragedy. Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman agrees with President Bush on Iraq: We can’t abandon this fledgling democracy. Many other Americans believe the same.

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