As it turns out, the best speech I heard at a counterterrorism summit outside Tel Aviv this week came in the form of a few impromptu remarks made by an Iraqi parliamentarian who made a surprise appearance during the conference. Prior to his arrival, very little had been said about Iraq’s unfriendly neighbor and the number-one state sponsor of terrorism—the Islamic Republic of Iran. Instead, much was made of the terrorist “epicenter” in the tribal belt along the border that separates Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Iraq, we also heard, was a disastrous blunder for America, diverting attention away from the much broader strategic threat in the war against terrorism—not Iran, but the shadowy terror networks hiding in the remotest corners of the world: in Pakistan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Africa and South America, as well as homegrown cells in Europe and the United States.

On Wednesday morning—the day before the seventh anniversary of 9/11—panelists assembled to discuss the lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan. The first speaker, a retired U.S. general, reminded us of all the energy and resources America has wasted in Iraq. They would have yielded much better results in Afghanistan, he said.

The final speaker, who works for one of the largest specialist centers for counterterrorism research and training, located in Singapore, continued on a similar tack. Before the U.S. invasion, he said, there was only one terrorist group in Iraq—a small Kurdish cell in the north. But because the U.S. occupation was such an abysmal failure early on, the speaker intoned, Iraq turned into a breeding ground for all sorts of terrorist groups with links to al Qaeda. Had we not taken our eye off the ball in the war against terror, he asserted confidently, the core of al Qaeda would have already been destroyed.

Instead, we’re stuck in Iraq—and most of the Iraqis don’t even want us there, he told us. But to withdraw now would be even more disastrous than invading in the first place, he said. Even the recent progress made by the American surge in Iraq has had a negative consequence, the expert said—the terrorist cells that have been squashed in Iraq have simply resurfaced in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is short on troops.

It was a depressing analysis indeed—until the moderator asked the chairman of Iraq’s Democratic Party, Mithal al-Alusi, to say a few words to conclude the discussion. After acknowledging his host and thanking the audience for their very warm reception, Alusi wasted little time in presenting a refreshing and positive alternative to what we had just heard.

First of all, he said, “In Iraq, there is no occupation—there is liberation.” Alusi acknowledged that mistakes have been made, as is the case in any war. But for the first time in Iraq’s history, he said, “There is such a thing as democratic elections.”

And as for the terrorists that have fled Iraq in order to fight on another front in Afghanistan—as if miraculously beamed from one country to the next—Alusi urged the audience to get a map and locate the massive territorial divide these terrorists have miraculously hopped over on their way to Afghanistan.

“Iran is at the center of all the troubles in our region,” he said. And just as they meddled in Iraq’s affairs, they are now complicating the situation on the ground in Afghanistan in order to provide themselves with cover, he explained. They need time to finish developing their nuclear arsenal, he said.

After his remarks, I asked Mr. Alusi if he believes his views represent a majority opinion in Iraq. “It’s very clear this is a liberation,” he told me. “People on the left in America have a problem with this. We in Iraq don’t have a problem with it. We call it a liberation because we know this is a liberation.”

Later, Alusi said, “I would like to say to the American people, thank you—not only because Saddam is gone—thank you for the change on the street and for the change in [our hearts].”

When asked about the controversial timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Alusi pleaded, “This is not the time to give up.” Later, he said, “Please, the time you are working for us is over. Now we are your partner. We are facing now Iran. And Iran is not an Iraqi problem. Iran, in the reality, is an international problem.”

Alusi resents the fact that in America, Iraq is being turned into a political issue. “This is not fair to the Iraqi people,” he said. “This is not fair to the American soldiers. We know the price they paid. We paid the same price. We have lost families and children.”

Alusi himself has paid dearly in this struggle. Shortly after Iraq’s liberation from Saddam’s regime, Alusi journeyed to Israel to attend the 2004 counterterrorism summit, hoping to establish ties that would lead to a partnership with Israel in the war against terror.

This didn’t set well with his enemies back home who immediately threatened him and his family. The following February, in 2005, Alusi narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. While leaving for work one morning, he decided to wait for another ride since his Jeep Cherokee was already loaded with passengers—two of them his sons, who were 22 and 30 at the time.

Moments later, as the car drove away from his home, a horrified Alusi watched from the driveway as the jeep was approached by a car full of assassins who leaned out the windows and gunned down his two sons and their bodyguard.

Not long after the brutal attack, a still-grieving Alusi had this to say on Radio Free Europe: “We will not, [I swear] by God, hand Iraq over to murderers and terrorists. We want to build Iraq; there has been enough destruction. We want to build schools for Iraqis, hospitals for Iraqis, and state institutions. We will not allow Iraq to become a tool in the hands of others.”

Today, though he believes he will one day experience the same personal fate his sons did three years ago, Mithal al-Alusi sees the real epicenter of this murderous network as clearly as he saw those assassins that February morning. “If you pull out your soldiers from Iraq,” he told me on Wednesday, “you are running away from facing the reality which is that we have a new fascist system in the Middle East and they are trying to get control of the Middle East and the world.”

The way Alusi sees it, rather than hiding in shadowy, underground networks around the globe, the heart of that system is operating right out in the open, in full view of everyone.

“If you leave Iraq,” he said, “Iran will take your place.”