Post-War Iraq Vs. Post-War Germany

I think a lot of what people call “lack of planning” in Iraq is really just “lack of perspective”. What we’re doing there is worthwhile, but it’s not easy or simple. No matter how you slice it, it’s bloody, dangerous, and dirty work….just like it was in Germany after after WW2

“Try Germany 1946, in the first year after World War II.

To hear the liberals tell the story, once the Allies conquered the Nazis, they stayed conquered – with American forces treated like the liberators they were.

But according to Fox News Channel war historian Oliver North, not every conquered German welcomed the American occupation with open arms.

On Monday North detailed the little-known truth about the post-World War II U.S. experience to ABC radio host Sean Hannity:

“From May 8, 1945 until June 1946, over a thousand Americans and their dependents were killed by German terrorists,” he explained, while discussing his new book, “War Stories II: Heroism in the Pacific.”

So, how did the U.S. eventually quell the violence?

“General Eisenhower went to [interim German leader] Konrad Adenauer, the guy we hand-picked to run the new government,” said North. “And he told him, ‘You either stop this or we’ll get a new guy to run this country.'”

Adenauer prompty contacted the Wermacht and told them to take care of the problem at all costs, using former SS troops if necessary.

“It wasn’t pretty,” said North. “There were no trials – nobody was brought before tribunals or anything like that. The German army just went out and took care of it. And the killing stopped.”

Is what we’re doing in Iraq worth it even if it isn’t easy? Well, was Germany worth it? Was Japan? Was helping South Korea rebuild after the Korean War? I say “yes,” and I strongly suspect that 20 years from now, once the fighting is over and Iraq is a Democratic country, a lot of the naysayers today will have a very different perspective on whether it was worth it than they do today…

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