There’s a peculiar tendency among many progressives and leftists to blame the United States for all the world’s ills. Consider Iraq: In the wake of the ouster of Saddam Hussein, critics of American actions suggested that the United States had killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. The only problem, with such a suggestion, is it is blatantly untrue.

Former Baathists, Islamist terrorists, and Shi’ite militias killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, if not more. U.S. forces, meanwhile, worked with Iraqi security forces to defeat the insurgents and terrorists who, unlike American forces, were targeting schools, markets, churches, and mosques. When the going got tough, however, most European contingents left.