http://www.nydailynews.com/news/idea...p-339828c.html
The case for the war
Rep. Christopher Shays
Progress is not always swift or easy. In the three years since the Multinational Coalition liberated a troubled Iraq, progress toward a stable, free society has been halting, at times sublime and at times painful to watch. But it cannot be denied we have given the Iraqi people an opportunity for a better future.
Despite many missteps and misjudgments, democracy is taking root. There is no going back to the horrors of the dictator. The only course open to them, and us, is forward.
Today, in that journey, both our nations face a moment of truth. It will not be the last.
After three elections in just one year - to select an interim government, adopt a constitution and seat a fully representative parliament - most Iraqis have embraced the ballot over the bullet as the anvil on which to forge their national identity. They did so in numbers that beat turnout rates in most elections here in the United States.
Sunni participation in the last round of voting confirmed the inexorable momentum of the political over the military solution. Now, the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra, intended to fracture the emerging political consensus, presents the Iraqi people with yet another difficult election: continue to build a civil society or succumb to the provocation to civil war.
Our choice is between patience and politics, humility and hubris.
Early mistakes dug us, and the Iraqis, into a deep hole. In mid-2003, we failed to predict or detect the insurgency. The insurgency then rushed to exploit the security vacuum we created by summarily dismantling all Iraqi security forces. Indiscriminate firing of officials from Saddam Hussein's party stripped technical expertise from government ministries.
Cultural arrogance at the Coalition Provisional Authority delayed putting Iraqis in charge of their own fate.
Since 2004, the multinational forces have been playing catchup, helping a sovereign Iraq rebuild national military, police and border protection capabilities. Today there are more than 35 Iraqi Army combat battalions capable of fighting the insurgency, and more than 100,000 well-trained Ministry of Interior forces patrolling the streets and working to protect the infrastructure. U.S. government agencies, civilian contractors and nongovernmental organizations are working with Iraqis to rebuild the country.
American credibility in Iraq and across the Middle East has been invested in the outcome of these efforts. Any decision to disengage prematurely for our political convenience squanders that investment. Any judgment that a fractious Iraq is just not ready for democracy betrays our well-earned faith in the universal rights of the men and women so brutally oppressed by the regime of Saddam. Success in Iraq will not be measured in terms of declining U.S. troops, but in the growing number of Iraqis willing to put aside religious, tribal and ethnic divisions to fight, vote and pray for the future of their emerging democratic state.
I have traveled to Iraq 11 times since 2003 and have met remarkable people. When I ask them what their biggest fear is, it is not the violence. It is "that you will leave us."
One of many brave Iraqis I have had the honor of meeting is Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni who was the first Iraqi political official to travel to Israel to address an antiterrorism conference. For his courage, he was removed from his position on the De-Baathification Commission, his personal security protection was withdrawn and he became a marked man. Insurgents gunned down his two sons while they were trying to protect him. Yet when he recently came to the United States, all he wanted was to go back to Iraq and help his nation become a democracy. In December, he was elected to the Iraqi Parliament. When he and those like him ask us to leave, we will know the time is right.
Shays (R-Conn.) is chairman of the House subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations. He was the first member of Congress to enter Iraq after the war and has traveled to the region 11 times.
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