I would take issue with several finer points, but I think the main premise -- that we are in a war and that it is a war we must win -- is correct.

 

I found it odd that the title was "a different spin on the Iraq war".  It did not seem like a different spin to me, but then again I don't rely on CNN or the New York Times for my information.  That would be kind of like limiting my knowledge of theology to Marilyn Manson's Bible studies (as entertaining as they might be).

 

Too be honest I've read many articles over the years that I think have made these points much more effectively and accurately than below.  So many articles -- not sure where to start, but this one from Commentary Magazine and this one from Victor Davis Hanson.  This article by Gary Rosen goes deep into foreign policy but ends with this:

Mere cooperation among states is no promise of peace and security when what goes on within states, large and small, has assumed such potentially lethal proportions. In this respect, as President Bush correctly observed in his June 2004 speech at the Air Force Academy, realism has proved a most unrealistic guide to foreign policy.

 

None of this makes it easier—or, in every instance, practical—to put freedom “on the march,” in Bush’s phrase. But our predicament leaves few other options, and we will never discover the right combination of “carrots and sticks” for the job if, for fear of offending our friends, we resign ourselves to a status quo that nurtures our enemies.

Some feel instinctively uneasy about "American arrogance" (or in some cases self-loathing), but the context of history is a wonderful remedy.  Once upon a time there was a very unpopular war -- there were hundreds of thousands of casualties and draft riots in New York.  The President was not expected to be re-elected under these circumstances, but he was and perhaps the Union was saved as a result by President Lincoln's convictions and perseverance.  Wars are always messy and never go as planned.  But so far over 50 million people have been liberated from tyrannical regimes which tortured and killed dissidents (or infidels) and gave shelter to and perhaps even collaborated with terrorists.  We can debate if the war is moral, but there have certainly been significant accomplishments. 

 

Speaking of casualties -- and certainly not to make light of them -- so far there have been 2,358 US casualties in Iraq over three years of combat..  Between 1983 and 1996 an average of 1,286 American servicemen were killed by accidents each year -- more than double the rate of casualties in Iraq.  The purpose here is not to make light of the casualties but to provide context to the never ending drumbeat of the body count in the news.

 

And on top of all this the information coming out of Project Harmony as of late has been rather revealing.  Only a small number of documents have been translated thus far, but the body of evidence is growing daily that Iraqi leaders were not only transporting WMD (apparently chemical munitions) right up to the invasion, but also intended to strike at unspecified Western targets outside of Iraq.  We also just learned that over 8,000 terrorists were trained at Saddams's training camps between 1999 and 2002 and US intelligence believes that many of these are the "foreign fighters" that have come back into Iraq with RPGs and IEDs.  Not to mention that the camp at Salman Pak which featured a large commercial airliner where hijacking was allegedly practiced. Too soon to draw definitive conclusions, but the information that is first now slowly starting to trickle out .  Bob Kerry a leading Democrat on the 9-11 commission said just 2 weeks ago that the commission's findings should be reconsidered as a result of this new evidence.  Israeli intelligence still adamantly believes that the WMD was moved to Syria days before the invasion.

 

Also worth noting that this essay was written before the riots in France last year (not this month's protests on the CPE).  As Mark Steyn points out it may already be too late for Europe. 

 

Wow.  Sorry this is so verbose.  Every time I finish a paragraph a new thought enters my mind.  Anyways that's my $0.02.