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Le Figaro, France

Iraq: George W. Bush’s Victory



By Ivan Rioufol

If the anti-war brigade had had their way, democracy would not have come into being in Iraq.

Translated By Richard Furlong

 8 March 2010

Edited by Jes­sica Boesl


France - Le Figaro - Original Article (French)

Will history agree with George W. Bush? It is his policy of democratization in Iraq, launched seven years ago after the fall of Saddam Hussein, that is being imposed, with election after election coming, despite serious initial strategic errors. This weekend, the Iraqis have once again rallied themselves to vote, despite al-Qaida intimidation (38 deaths in attacks). The Sunni minority, abstaining up until now, has now taken to the polls. Initial surveys suggest that Islamist parties will be in decline. As Adrien Jaulmes, Figaro's special envoy to Baghdad, wrote this Monday: "The American invasion and the installation of a new regime has propelled the country into a democratic system without parallel in the Arab world, if we exclude the particular case of Lebanon." However, the media in general is being careful not to recognize the origin of this success, which goes against its sheep-like, anti-Bush analysis. Having been one of those who supported the American strategy in 2003, I am enjoying this success all the more, even if the situation is still far from perfect. The Iraqi Christians' lot remains an appalling one.

To those who feel that there exists an incompatibility between Islam and democracy, year upon year the Iraqis are bringing a cry of denial, joined by the hopes of many Iranians for liberty. In the last few days, television reports have shown electoral posters of Iraqi candidates for the legislative elections, photographed without their veils (is Olivier Besancenot aware of his regression when he defends his candidate who wears a veil?). For my part, I remember the absolute insistence of these numerous commentators who assured us that a democracy does not force its way into being (despite the examples of Japan or Germany) and that resorting to force can only consolidate terrorism. The followers of "soft-power," such as France's new, high-ranking appease-niks, remain ready to temporize before this new "Islamo-Fascism," as Bush and the neoconservatives describe it. If the anti-war brigade had had their way, democracy would not have come into being in Iraq.



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3 Responses to “Iraq: George W. Bush’s Victory”

  1.  Vote: Add rating 1  Subtract rating 7   Bob Egan Says:
    March 11th, 2010 at 12:25 am

    The price was 5% of Iraqi’s dead, 20% home­less, plus, plus, plus — 25 % of chil­dren born in Falu­gia have severe birth defects due to the use of depleted uranium!

    Great move Dumbya!

    Nolt all was lost Dumbya’s bud­dies made a for­tune while rob­bing the trea­sury and bank­rupt­ing the coun­try! The ter­ror­ists won big time!!!

  2.  Vote: Add rating 0  Subtract rating 0   John_in_Michigan_USA Says:
    March 16th, 2010 at 6:54 pm

    This is a great post. It remains to be seen if democ­racy will suc­ceed in Iraq, but things are look­ing bet­ter than ever. Bush got great advice from the Keegan’s and Gen. Petraeus. Also, Bush couldn’t have suc­ceeded with­out his ally in the Sen­tate, John McCain. All of them get credit along with Bush.

    @Bob Egan: Those depleted ura­nium myths have been debunked over and over again. Here is an arti­cle dat­ing back to the Per­sian Gulf War (Hint: the (non-) effects haven’t changed since then):

    http://reason.com/archives/2003/03/26/nuclear-genocide

    (Rea­son mag­a­zine was against the Iraq war, by the way)

    (The arti­cle cites, the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, WHO, with a link)

    Why not claim 110% birth defects since we’re mak­ing things up?

    The mil­lions of casu­al­ties (5%) myth has been debunked, also. The anti-war site http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ doc­u­mented civil­ian deaths from vio­lence between 95,639 – 104,338 TOTAL from the war start in 2003 to today. If there had been mil­lions of deaths, the bod­ies surely would have shown up by now, there is no way that many could be hid­den or destroyed with­out leav­ing unmis­tak­able signs.

  3.  Vote: Add rating 0  Subtract rating 0   jwpegler Says:
    March 23rd, 2010 at 9:15 am

    A vic­tory at what price? A tril­lion debt to the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment. Dimin­ished Amer­i­can stand­ing in the world. 4,379 dead Amer­i­can kids and another 31,693 maimed and wounded. Finally, a new Pres­i­dent who is hell­bent on turn­ing Amer­ica into a social­ist hell hole. This is what the Iraq war cost America.

    Iraq was in no way an Amer­i­can “victory”.

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