This morning (appx. 10:30 AM, 11/8/02) the United Nations Security Council passed the resolution that will make any...that is ANY misstep by Saddam Hussein grounds for military intervention, effectively gutting America’s anti-war movement which was predicated on the principle that it was wrong for America to “go it alone.” Now, America and Britain aren’t “going it alone. In fact, even Syria jumped aboard this plan.
The primary tactical error among the anti-war crowd was that no one in there made the issue one of national sovereignty; for instance, “America, Russia, Israel among others have nukes, why not Iraq?” Maybe they should have, but it’s too late for that now, their teeth have already been pulled.
The world now appears in unison over disarming Iraq and there is no moral high ground on which to predicate an opposition to that forced disarmament.
Further, the U.S. pulled a coup here! The resolution is worded so tightly that Saddam, if he has any nuclear, biological or chemical weapons programs in the works, cannot possibly abide by it. This demands not just unfettered access, but the ability of inspectors “unfettered access” to all areas and to question any Iraqi they want to. There is no way Saddam can control his country and abide by this resolution at the same time.
There is little doubt that Iraq is working on developing some of these weapons systems and there is no doubt that he cannot accept the terms the UN has set down for him. So this makes a subsequent invasion a near certainty.
November 8th should go down as a catastrophic day for America’s fledgling anti-war movement and a banner day for U.S. national security. America’s current anti-war movement was never so much about defending Iraq (“No blood for oil”) as it was about priorities. The America-hating Left has a greater fear of United States “bullying” than Iraq’s potential for inflicting harm on America and its allies. What else can you expect from a group that hails an unrepentant cop-killer (Mumia Abu Jamal) as an “American hero?” The Left reviles America so much that they worry more about the treatment of terrorists in Guantanamo Bay than they do about the lives of American servicemen. These are the same sort of people who populate groups like Amnesty International, which today condemned November 3rd’s surgical strike on al Qaeda leaders in Yemen, this from a group that condemned no one after 3,000 Americans were incinerated on 9-11-01. And they wonder why almost no one in mainstream America agrees with them.
At any rate, Iraq is expected to be out of compliance as early as within thirty days, if they don’t just refuse to cooperate within the seven day window that have to agree to these terms. Once Iraq resists, it’s just one more trip to the UN to lay out Iraq’s abuses and then a swift invasion...a surgical strike that should be successfully completed within a matter of weeks. Best of all, America’s anti-war has lost its teeth. There will be no appearance of the U.S. acting unilaterally and thus, no righteous objection to invasion should Iraq not comply.
There is some poetic justice in all this. Those in the anti-war movement, many of whom have derided G W Bush as a moron, were snookered and taken to the cleaners by Bush (his 9-12-02 speech at the UN made the case for this directive) and his administration (most notably Condy Rice & Colin Powell).
To those in the anti-war movement, the message is clear; “Say goodbye to the sixties, Gracie.”
My reslatives were killed in concentration camps thanks to liberals who supported Hitler. We must support our great president and his wonderful gutsy agenda!
lgl
Pacifists have been saying we are wrong to go to war and ask that we seek another way, and I’m compelled to say, we didn’t start this violence, why are you not in Afghanistan asking those fanatics who started this to find another way. A child who day after day is beaten up by the school bully for his lunch money has no choice but to stand up and fight back, lest the beatings continue.
I state the obvious.
What concerns me about the recent terrorist activity against our nation is why no one has come forward to ask the simplest of questions: “Why?
Was it wrong for a handful of terrorists to highjack jetliners to crash them into our buildings? Of course it was. But in all the media coverage in the days following 9/11, I never once heard the question asked, why? Considering the zealots who succeeded in accomplishing their aim, perhaps there is no good reason. But again I’m forced to look at the bigger picture and ask why do the Arab nations, as well as many European countries, despise America?
Recent Administrations have said we are in the region (the Middle East) to guard against aggression, acting as a policeman to ensure the likes of Kuwait don’t come under invasion. In truth, are we not there, at least in part, to protect our own interests (oil) and our own way of life? When gasoline prices approach $2 a gallon we cry “outrageous!” But in our American arrogance we maintain our ignorance that most Europeans are and have been paying twice that much for years.
August and Julius Hare penned the phrase Right is might over a century ago, but somehow the original words, their context at least, have been changed to mean Might is right.
America has come to worship capitalism as a sort of god. We continue to expand our horizons, seeking new places from which to derive even more wealth (the “world market”)—when China agreed to open trade with America, the automakers gleefully smacked their lips and greedily wrung their hands at the prospect of a multi-billion member market—and again in our arrogance we feign ignorance in the face of world resentment of our pursuit. America mistakenly tries to force our values, as well as our culture, on nations whose values and cultures differ from ours, and foolishly raise our eyebrows in ignorance when we are resented.
The current Administration says we will root out evil and destroy terrorism, but I have little faith that we will succeed. Terrorism, I fear, is here to stay for a long, long time. We might one day succeed in bringing Osama bin Laden to justice, and succeed also in disarming and initiating new leadership in Iraq, but there will be other bin Ladens and Husseins to follow, and other threats to the current world order (North Korea).
There will always be bullies to take a swing at us for our lunch money, and while I certainly believe our way of life is worth defending, I also believe that understanding the psychology (in this case the culture of another nation) of the bully is as equally important as defending, by force if necessary, our way of life.
A thought provoking write, Michael. Keep up the good work!
J.