Much has been written and orated on about Iraq being the next American Vietnam.  Indeed none other than Ted Kennedy have opined that we are in a quagmire in iraq that only in defeat can we extracate ourselves.

Yet with the abondonment of the nuclear Program in Libya, the beginning of the withdrawl of Syrian troops in Lebanon, the scheduling of the first truly democratic elections in Egypt, and the demonstrations for equal rights of women in Kuwait, we see that Iraq is not a quagmire, but a beacon that other country's citizens are starting to look at and raise their voices in protest to tin plated dictators.

That does not even count the sucessful elections in Afghanistan and Iraq.  And how silent the doom and nay sayers have become as their pessimism is not born out, but instead, like so many times in the past, the opposite is actually occurring.

Now the fires of freedom are actually spreading to none other than Vietnam itself.  While I dont see them opening up and having free elections in the near future, there are signs that they are tired of being isolated as one of the handful totalitarian regimes left in the world, and want to take their place among the nations of peace and freedom.

So again the Liberals are wrong, not just in nuance, but by 180 degrees.  Nothing is set in stone, not Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Libya.  But the crack in the dike is growing, and soon the force of the waters of freedom will no longer be contained.

We can hope.