In yet another sign that Iraq has been stabilized and the war there is winding down, no American soldiers lost their lives in the country during the month of December. Iraqi death totals have also decreased to the lowest level since 2003. There’s no indication that the positive trend will stop.

There were those who said the war couldn’t be won, that there was no military solution. They said that we should’ve withdrawn our soldiers back in 2004, leaving the Iraqi people to their deaths or oppression under the insurgent forces and their backers. They said the war was lost, that the country couldn’t be stabilized.

They were wrong. The war has been won, the country has been stabilized, and democracy has been established. The people of Iraq will now live with freedom, as opposed to the brutal dictator they were suffering under less than seven years ago.

May God bless all of those whose lives were lost. The cost was higher than any of us wanted or predicted. But in the end, those who we lost didn’t die in vain. We stayed the course. And we won.