Not only have many opposed to the war mischaracterized or omitted information regarding the threat posed by Iraq prior to the war, they have spent the past year ignoring, and in some cases disparaging, the accomplishments the United States has achieved in Iraq – especially over the past year. When those on the left continue to describe the war in Iraq as an unmitigated failure, not only do they lie to the American people, but they dishonor the Americans who have served there and denigrate their achievements.

Victor Davis Hanson recently wrote: “The successful toppling of Saddam was followed in short order by the shutdown of Dr. Khan’s atomic shop, the surrender of WMDs by the Libyans, and the supposed sidetracking of the Iranian nuclear bomb program (at least according to the National Intelligence Estimate) — and yet no one thought the timing of all these events was odd (even when Ghaddafi himself reportedly connected his decision to abandon a weapons of mass destruction program to Saddam’s fate).”

Perhaps one of the most convincing reports of America’s success against al Qaeda comes from those in the terrorist organization themselves – a topic of discussion for several years now on Islamic terrorist web sites. StrategyPage.com reports the primary cause is believed to be “Moslems killed as a side effect of attacks on infidel troops, Iraqi security forces and non-Sunnis.” 

The same report goes on to describe how the surge appears to have achieved great success in the battle against al Qaeda in Iraq.  “When al Qaeda could not, in 2007, exercise any real control over the parts of Iraq they claimed as part of the new Islamic State, it was the last straw. The key supporters, battered by increasingly effective American and Iraqi attacks, dropped their support for al Qaeda, and the terrorist organization got stomped to bits by the ‘surge offensive’ of last year.”

For presidential candidates to say now, knowing what is known five years later, with 20/20 hindsight, what decision they would have made regarding the threat posed by Saddam Hussein is irrelevant. Only what the candidate would have done knowing what was known then is any indication of what they might do in the future. The candidate who becomes president will not have a crystal ball and will have to make decisions knowing only the information available in the past and present. 

We can learn a lot from the past, but only when all the facts are studied.  That means not just those facts that make headlines in the American media, but also those facts that reflect positively on the Bush administration and the U.S. military.