Mission Accomplished, Part XVII

Breaking news: Ibrahim Jafari, a Shiite politician and former exile who battled Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, was named prime minister of Iraq Thursday.

I guess it’s time for another great celebration – and another round of articles proclaiming that George Bush was right all along, that he’s brought democracy to Iraq, and that it was worth the cost (without mentioning that the cost was tens of thousands of human lives snuffed out).

Perhaps we were wrong to celebrate the final and total victory when the new Iraqi Parliament began its meetings (and resorted to shouting matches) – or just because an election was held on January 31 – or when "sovereignty" was turned over to the interim Iraqi government – or when Saddam Hussein was captured – or when George Bush swaggered on the aircraft carrier and announced that "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended" – or when Saddam’s statue was toppled (by U.S. marines and Iraqi quislings, as it turned out) – or when Baghdad fell.

But this time we know Iraq is finally liberated and free. And now no one could possibly believe that George Bush wasn’t absolutely right in killing thousands of people to bring us to this moment.

April 9, 2005