Letters: Answers to questions about the coming war
Americans are troubled about the coming war, as they should be. However, some sensible answers to several questions need to be listed, and I will do just that.
Questions include: Why fight Iraq? Why not fight North Korea instead? Are we neglecting the war on terror? And why fight at all? Why not do as the "peaceniks" say and just negotiate until we drop.
Starting from the last: We must fight because if we don't Saddam Hussein will use our peaceful intentions to call us weak, and laugh at us, and then bully everyone in his neighborhood. He will tell everyone that he defeated the great Satan again, so they need to look to him for protection. He will soon take control of Kuwait, then bully Saudi Arabia into letting him run their oil industry. Even Iran will have to kowtow to him. In a couple of years, if you want any oil from the gulf, you will have to beg from Saddam. (Yes, its about oil, not for the U.S. alone, but for the entire world.)
Negotiations with such a brutal devil as Saddam is just surrendering to him, in his view — and in ours.
We must fight him first because we have our troops in his part of the world. It would take us months and billions of dollars to shift our entire focus to North Korea. We'll get to them in time, but for now, we need to take care of Saddam, and talk with North Korea for awhile. They will continue to build up their stock of nuclear bombs, of course, but when we get to them they won't dare use them — and if they do
Now about the Al Quaida terrorists. They have been seriously hurt by the international campaign against them. Old what's his face may still be alive, and he is still warning of more terrorism, but they have been none too active in recent months, except in Malaysia. Losing several thousand of their leaders as they have, doesn't help their cause. The U.S., Spain, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Italy, and yes, even Germany and France have arrested their Al Quida operatives in droves. We did not and will not neglect that phase of the big picture.
So, if we spank Iraq and then get North Korea quieted down, Iran might just fall into the democratic circle. It has a big populace ready to go in democratic government. This would mean a couple democracies in the Gulf, North Korea out of the threatening business, and peace all around.
That's what you wanted, isn't it?
Well, isn't it?
The "peaceniks" who made so much of the Bush war policy over the weekend don't really want peace. They want to elect a liberal Democrat for President next time out, at least the American protesters do. They are led and coached by the Democratic machine, which has decided that anything Bush does during this term will be criticized. There has never been a more vicious plan to defeat a candidate than the Democrats are now involved in. No matter what cost to America, or the world, they stick with their opposition to taking out Saddam because it is Bush policy.
With this lead from Americans, all the Yankee haters in the world feel free to jump in and protest the 'War,' although most of them haven't a clue as to how to solve the Saddam equation in any other way. They bleat for "peace" and "negotiations," but those are wispy goals, not practical solutions.
We are lucky to have a smart guy like George W. Bush in charge of the American military, and handling the game for America — and the world. One can only pray that he still goes ahead with the plan to knock out the Butcher of Baghdad, and then those reluctant heroes may see the light — or not, due to their dimbulb thinking.
By Bill Krause, of course.
