Troop Surge in Iraq: President Bush's First Reckless Decision of 2007

Who exactly did we liberate in Iraq? Tens of thousands are fleeing, many more have been killed, cities have been destroyed and the necessities in life are becoming a luxury not many can afford.

Bush now wants an American troop surge while Shiite and Sunni militias are fighting each other, setting off car bombs and kidnapping enemies. They are torturing and murdering one another. The police are corrupt, and the government is not stepping up. Prime Minister Maliki appears incompetent, and recently told the Wall Street Journal he never wanted the job in the first place.

We invaded Iraq because Saddam Hussein posed a "grave and dangerous threat". When that proved false, it became a "liberation" where the Iraqi people would greet us with flowers. That too, sadly, has proven wrong. Saddam Hussein may have used chemical weapons on his own people, but it was with weapons supplied to him by the United States when Iraq was fighting Iran. People seem to forget that Saddam was still our "friend" at that time.

Saddam had Iraq under his thumb. That is what a dictator does. But he was a secular dictator, which means he did not rule Iraq the same way the Taliban ruled Afghanistan or how the Royal Family rules Saudi Arabia. Women were able to go to school and drive cars, the people weren't starving, and there wasn't any religious oppression because Saddam himself was not religious. I am not trying to paint a rosy picture of Saddam Hussein or defend him. But I am disturbed when I see what many Iraqis are doing to each other now that Saddam is gone. Quite frankly, he had a lid on the brutal sectarian violence taking place now. Many of these militias running around seem more frightening than Saddam ever was.