Regime change matters

Is Iraq better off now than it was 25 years ago?

Yes, regime changes are good things that America occasionally must make. The death of the ayatollah spared the world the funding of terrorism and the danger of a regime building nuclear weaponry that has chanted “Death to America” for 47 years.

I don’t watch TV, but Friday on Bill Maher’s show, there was this exchange:

Bill Maher: “This statement from the administration: ‘The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could reasonably determine that such use of force was in the national interest.’ That’s too vague for you?”

Senator Adam Schiff: “Totally vague.”

Maher: “Okay. Because that’s from Obama about Libya.”

Schiff: “Well, Obama made the argument about, umm, initially that he could go into Syria.”

But here was the moment we all should cheer:

Schiff: “When Saddam fell there were celebrations. 20 years later not so many celebrations.”

Maher: “20 years later, Iraq is actually in a pretty good place. People don’t talk about that. Iraq is a much better country than it was. That kind of goes unnoticed that Iraq is not a failed state anymore. They actually have elections. They have opposition parties. They have a media.

“It would still be torture rooms and Saddam Hussein and his kids would be in charge right now.”

Maher absolutely is correct. In 2 years, Dubya and the United States gave Iraqis their first true election in a half century. Yes, we had to protect Iraq from insurgents—Iranians—for a few years but Iraq today is vibrant and alive.

Its people are free and its economy is 6 times larger than it was. Life expectancy is longer. President Bush’s legacy took a pounding but he brushed into the dustbin of history a despot who exported terrorism.

Readers need to bear in mind two questions: Is Iraq better off now than it was 25 years ago? Absent USA intervention, would it have been better anyway?

Let us always remember, boots on the ground got the job done.

Someday, Bush should just stand up and defend his foreign policy because it sure as hell beat what was done by Obama, who encouraged Muslim uprisings, creating a civil war in Libya, and enabling millions of Muslims to overrun Italy and the rest of Western Europe.

Earlier, the USA fought in Korea. Many Americans call it the forgotten war. I don’t. My son and his family who call it home.

73 years ago, the war ended and reaffirmed the split between North Korea and South Korea with the North occupying 55% of the peninsula.

Over the years, the differences between North and South are visible from space with nighttime photography showing the North darkened while the South trips the light fantastic.

Life expectancy is 70 years in the North, 83 in the South.

South Korea’s economy is 60 times larger than the North.

GDP per capita is $36,000 a year in the South versus $1,200 in the North.

Regime change matters because some regimes pose a threat to the world and must be removed. In the early 1940s, the United States went to war to change regimes in Germany, Italy and Japan. We kept boots on the ground afterward. The climb was long and hard but the journey was successful.

As unhappy as we may be with the people now running the EU—as worried as we are about Muslim invaders turning Europe into a caliphate—the fact is the United States transformed Europe from a collection of nations that went to war every generation or so to a place where the French and Germans have enjoyed 80 years of an actual peace.

The allies split Germany to prevent it from rearming and lo and behold, Germany became the laboratory where we tested capitalism against communism. East Germans and West Germans started off as equally defeated with their cities in rubble.

By the time of the fall of the Wall, West Germany’s economy was 6 times greater than the East. Also, life expectancy was slightly higher in the West.

The Poles, the Czechs, the Slovaks, the Hungarians and so on enjoyed regime changes as their Soviet overlords fell like dominos following the fall of the Wall. Those 45 years of the USA financing and waging the Cold War paid off and those who suffered under communism show an appreciation lost on those we were able to save in World War II.

Not everything went well. Ukraine became a kleptocracy and a laundromat for bribes collected by Joe Biden and the rest of the scum of the earth in public service.

On Friday, Thomas Brooke reported:

Hungarian authorities have detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized tens of millions of dollars, euros, and gold that were being transported through the country in armored vehicles, triggering the latest diplomatic dispute between Budapest and Kyiv.

Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration confirmed on Friday that criminal proceedings had been launched on suspicion of money laundering following an operation carried out on March 5. Authorities intercepted two armored cash-transport vehicles traveling through Hungary from Austria toward Ukraine.

According to the Hungarian authorities, the vehicles were carrying approximately $40 million, €35 million in cash, and 9 kilograms of gold.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the case raised serious questions about the movement of large quantities of physical cash through the country.

Maybe Trump should enter the Ukraine War and attack both sides and take over both countries. Tsar Marco the Great has a nice ring to it. Kristi Noem gets Zelensky’s job.

But the Trump administration has enough on its plate. Thankfully, the Cabinet is deep. Trump sent Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to Caracas to re-open the embassy.

The BBC reported:

The U.S. and Venezuela have agreed to re-establish diplomatic and consular relations.

The agency said in a statement that the two sides would make joint efforts to promote stability, support economic recovery and advance political reconciliation.

While their diplomatic relations have been improving since the US military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January in a surprise raid, the announcement of formal bilateral ties marks a hugely symbolic step.

Interim president Delcy Rodriguez keeps her job as long as she’s working with us. Imposing our own people won’t win over the country. Roll out the barrels of purple ink as I expect a real election this year but events dictate calendars, don’t they?

As for Iran, regime change is long overdue and the only people who can bring about the change are American military men and women.

We are going to need boots on the ground not to fight but to find. Iran may have enough uranium to build dirty nuclear bombs. We may have to send in troops to find it. Oh, and did I tell you Iran is twice the size of Texas?

Rescuing Iran from the mullahs will take time but perhaps the House of Saud or some other group of Muslims can take the task over from us. Operation Epic Fury always had an endgame. Democrats never liked it.

So don’t buy the Marxist Muslim line that regime changes don’t work. Bush and Truman proved they do. FDR too.

—

TODAY’S POLL: Gunther Eagleman tweeted, “Secretary of State Marco Rubio just switched to flawless SPANISH mid-summit to address Latin American leaders at the Shield of the Americas event.

“Is there anything this guy can’t do?”