Commentary
Twenty years ago last week, American aircraft bombarded Baghdad, starting the United States’ nine-year misadventure in Iraq.
Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that Americans would be “greeted as liberators.” This came true, but only briefly. Iraqi citizens—having endured decades of suffering under Saddam Hussein and his vicious, kleptocratic relatives and cronies—cheered when in just three weeks Americans routed Saddam’s army and defeated his Ba’athist government. Saddam had favored Iraq’s Sunni minority and kept Iraq subdued but stable. Many recall Saddam’s statue in Firdos Square being toppled over, and the Iraqis rushing to strike the prone figure with the soles of their shoes, a humiliating affront in Arab culture….