Well, I may be a day or two late here, but on the two year anniversary of the war for liberation of Iraq, it is good to use that perspective to reflect on some of the consequences of our intervention. Charles Krauthammer has a great column in the Washington Post that is a must read. Here’s a taste:

At his news conference on Wednesday, President Bush declined an invitation to claim vindication for his policy of spreading democracy in the Middle East. After two years of attacks on him as a historical illiterate pursuing the childish fantasy of Middle East democracy, he was entitled to claim a bit of credit. Yet he declined, partly out of modesty (as with Ronald Reagan, one of the secrets of his political success) and partly because he has learned the perils of declaring any mission accomplished.

The democracy project is, of course, just beginning. We do not yet know whether the Middle East today is Europe 1989 or Europe 1848. In 1989 we saw the swift collapse of the Soviet empire; in 1848 there was a flowering of liberal revolutions throughout Europe that, within a short time, were all suppressed.

We do not yet know, however, whether this initial flourishing of democracy will succeed. The Syrian and Iraqi Baathists, their jihadist allies, and the various regional autocrats are quite determined to suppress it. But we do know one thing: Those who claimed, with great certainty, that Arabs are an exception to the human tendency toward freedom, that they live in a stunted and distorted culture that makes them love their chains — and that the notion the United States could help trigger a democratic revolution by militarily deposing their oppressors was a fantasy — have been proved wrong.

It is not just that the ramparts of Euro-snobbery have been breached. Iraq and, more broadly, the Bush doctrine were always more than a purely intellectual matter. The left’s patronizing, quasi-colonialist view of the benighted Arabs was not just analytically incorrect. It was morally bankrupt, too.

The international left’s concern for human rights turns out to be nothing more than a useful weapon for its anti-Americanism. Jeane Kirkpatrick pointed out this selective concern for the victims of U.S. allies (such as Chile) 25 years ago. After the Cold War, the hypocrisy continues. For which Arab people do European hearts burn? The Palestinians. Why? Because that permits the vilification of Israel — an outpost of Western democracy and, even worse, a staunch U.S. ally. Championing suffering Iraqis, Syrians and Lebanese offers no such satisfaction. Hence, silence.

Until now. Now that the real Arab street has risen to claim rights that the West takes for granted, the left takes note. It is forced to acknowledge that those brutish Americans led by their simpleton cowboy might have been right. It has no choice. It is shamed. A Lebanese, amid a sea of a million other Lebanese, raises a placard reading “Thank you, George W. Bush,” and all that Euro-pretense, moral and intellectual, collapses.

Obviously, seeing the seeds of liberty beginning to blossom in the heretofore desert of tyranny is the greatest accomplishment of all. And yet, there have been other victories that are worthy of note. Not the least of which is the exposure of the anti-war left for what they truly are–poseurs who hate America and the values we cherish. They do not love freedom and peace, and their actions in opposing the spread of democracy belies any claim to the contrary.

And the curtain has also been pulled back to reveal the true motivations of the MSM who shamelessly allied themselves with those opposed to the Bush doctrine. Millions of Americans watched January’s elections in Iraq, and the earlier Afghanistan transition to democracy and saw the lies and deceptions that the networks and newspapers had been reporting as news. As soldiers return from the front, and bloggers continue to do the real reporting on our war efforts, more and more people are going to learn the truth. And a day of reckoning will come. Mudville Gazette (written by an Iraqi vet) has a great post on the at best incompetence and at worst malfeasance in the media’s failure to give the American people a proper accounting on the war effort.

Glenn Reynolds has some suggestions for the next gathering of the anti-war crowd:

Sackcloth, ashes, and signs reading: WE WERE WRONG, SORRY WE TRIED TO BLOCK ARAB DEMOCRACY, and WRONG ABOUT AFGHANISTAN, WRONG ABOUT IRAQ — DON’T LISTEN TO US NEXT TIME would be appropriate.

Don’t hold your breath on that one Glenn. But there is no going back. And perhaps the loss of credibility suffered by the left and the media will bring some sanity back to political discourse. Or not. But a new day has dawned and the efforts of those who oppose the spread of freedom have been proven to be in vain.

So as we mark an anniversary of an important milestone in the war on terror, we can also celebrate some significant victories here on the homefront.

And I say to myself, what a wonderful world….

Cross posted at The Wide Awakes