Is the Iraq War a failure?

As the presidential campaign continues to unfold, the Iraq War will remain one of the most important topics debated.

Our sluggish economy and the high prices of food and gasoline have been getting more of the issue spotlight recently, but the war and how it should be handled will hound the candidates all the way to November.

Public opinion polls continue to show the war is unpopular. Most people just want it to go away, and the Bush administration has received stinging criticism regarding how it has handled it.

If a person were to spend a few minutes surfing the Internet on this topic, he would be buried in an avalanche of opinions regarding whether the war has been a success or failure.

The main points of the war's critics should be familiar to us all by now. A recent book accused President Bush of manipulating intelligence reports in order to justify going into this conflict.

Additionally, the amount of people killed and wounded has caused many people to ponder whether the human cost has been worth it. More than 4,000 American service men and women have died while thousands more Iraqis have perished.

These issues plus the enormous financial cost of the war have caused many to state that the war is a failure.

While I respect those points of view, it is important to remember what Iraq was like before the war. An Iraqi citizen at that time lived every second being ruled by Saddam Hussein.

As Americans, it is difficult to understand what those people went through during Hussein's reign of terror. I know I can't possibly understand it.

Hussein’s atrocities have been well documented. He used nerve gas against his own people resulting in thousands of deaths. During his reign, tens of thousands of Kurdish people "disappeared."

The level of mayhem he created was so high that it could almost be considered cartoonish, but unfortunately for the Iraqi people it was all too real.

For all the flaws and missteps of the Iraq War, it has produced one important thing for those people. The war has given them hope.

Under Saddam, they had no hope for a better way of life. His boot was planted firmly against their necks, and if they tried to break free, retaliation against them would have been swift and brutal.

Now, Iraqis have the opportunity to determine what kind of country they will have. Of course, there is no predicting how that will unfold.

In the instant gratification society that we live in, I am afraid people will view the war as a failure if Iraq is not a stable democracy like ours when our troops leave.

That would be a big mistake. Whether our troops are in the country or not, Iraq faces years or decades of struggle to become a strong and stable country.

Remember, the United States did not declare its independence from Great Britain and suddenly become a stable super power. Forty years after our declaration, we were still struggling for freedom. A clear example of this was when the British burned the White House down in 1814.

The bottom line is the Iraqi people do have the opportunity for a better tomorrow because of the United States' efforts in this war.

While those directing our war efforts deserve some criticism, our magnificent troops deserve credit for giving the Iraqis the opportunity to be free like us.

When looking at it this way, how could anybody consider the war a failure?