8.26.2007

How We Are Winning in Iraq, Part III

Small things are often signs of bigger things. Such appears to be the case here, as reported by a soldier who is actually in Iraq right now:

There at the first corner, I see it. New glass. Someone has put new glass in a shop. Someone only installs new glass when they think it won't get broken. New glass is confidence.

As we roll though Ramadi I see more stores and small shops open. And more new glass.

[...]

Several days later we return to Ar Ramadi. We take the western highway this time which takes us north and around the city of Falluja. The north and east sides of Falluja are the most devastated. That is the direction from which US Forces attacked during Phantom Fury in November 2004.

As we round the northeast corner, I see one house that looks different from the others. People are living there. Coming and going. It has something the other places don't.

New Glass.
As Badger 6 points out, someone only installs new glass when they are not fearful that it will be broken soon. As commonplace as it is here in America, we may not realize what a big sign of hope that it is in Iraq to see new glass.

No matter what the lefty talking heads say, or wish, we are winning in Iraq. We are bringing hope back to people who have been trodden under the heel of a brutal dictator for decades. The fact that the left in this nation wants us to stop doing this, to pull out and create conditions where that hope is dashed upon the rocks of the genocide that even the NY Times believes will happen if we do, speaks volumes about what kind of people make up the left in America.

If the left had had its way, there would be no new glass in Ar Ramadi; we would have pulled out before those shopkeepers and homeowners had enough hope to install it. Keep that in mind when you hear Dean, Pelosi, Reid, Murtha, et al speaking.