Why won't Obama say 'victory' to mark end of Iraq war?

Why won't Obama say 'victory' to mark end of Iraq war? Washington Examiner

By: Examiner Editorial | 12/15/11 8:05 PM

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

President Barack Obama speaks in the 440th Structural Maintenance Hangar at Fort Bragg, N.C., Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011.

 

President Obama delivered an important speech yesterday concerning the conclusion of the American war effort in Iraq. He spoke at Fort Bragg, N.C., before an assembly of America's finest military men and women, not a few of whom carried with them wounds suffered in the war. Every American should carefully read and study this Obama speech. Those who do will look in vain for the most important word that can be said about this or any other war.

U.S. troops invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003. By all accounts, the turning point in the war was the surge, the rapid increase in 2006 of American troop strength and the systematic application of their courage and firepower in an unprecedented strategy of localized engagement that began with the Anbar Awakening.

Of the surge, Obama said this yesterday: "We remember the surge and we remember the Awakening -- when the abyss of chaos turned toward the promise of reconciliation. By battling and building block by block in Baghdad, by bringing tribes into the fold and partnering with the Iraqi army and police, you helped turn the tide toward peace."

A little further on in his address, Obama observed: "It's harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq -- all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering -- all of it has led to this moment of success. Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But we're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We're building a new partnership between our nations. And we are ending a war not with a final battle, but with a final march toward home."

Those are fine and inspiring words to be sure. But what is more notable is the one word America's commander in chief could not bring himself to say to the assembled troops: Victory. He called the end of the American sacrifice in Iraq a "moment of success." And he called it an "extraordinary achievement." He even called it the fullest "expression of America's support for self-determination than our leaving Iraq to its people."

But he didn't call it a victory, even though by his own description, Iraq was, before the arrival of American troops, a land of intense suffering under one of the most cruel and ruthless dictators in history. Today, the people of Iraq are no longer terrorized by their own government; they are instead its masters. If that result does not deserve to be called a victory for America, Obama owes an explanation to the families of the 4,500 Americans who gave their lives to bring it about.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2011/12/why-wont-obama-say-victory-mark-end-iraq-war/2008306#ixzz1hV3Vvse5