Tuesday, February 25, 2003
      ( 9:31 AM )  
Peace Through War

In the raging debate between the U.S. and Britain with France and Germany over whether or not to invade Iraq, one sometimes forgets that there are millions of Iraqi citizens who are being tortured, raped, murdered and imprisoned by Saddam and his regime. He is oppressing his people, who not only do not live free, but in many cases are not free to live at all. I wonder how they feel about the delay?

An editorial in today’s New York Times made this point clearly and concisely:

But if the antiwar movement dissuades the United States and its allies from going to war with Iraq, it will have contributed to the peace of the dead. Saddam Hussein will emerge victorious and ever more defiant. What has been accomplished so far will unravel. Containment is doomed to fail. We cannot forget that despots protected by their own elaborate security apparatus are still able to make decisions.

Saddam Hussein has dragged his people into at least two wars. He has used chemical weapons on them. He has killed hundreds of thousands of people and tortured and oppressed countless others. So why, in all of these demonstrations, did I not see one single banner or hear one speech calling for the end of human rights abuses in Iraq, the removal of the dictator and freedom for the Iraqis and the Kurdish people? If we are going to demonstrate and exert pressure, shouldn't it be focused on the real villain, with the goal of getting him to surrender his weapons of mass destruction and resign from power?

Well said, and I only wish the author has chosen to stop there. Unfortunately, the author, José Ramos-Horta, East Timor's minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, disagrees on how much time Iraq needs to disarm. Despite reviewing a litany of deaths in his family caused by Indonesia’s conflict with East Timor, he asks for more time for inspectors, which is really more time for Saddam to inflict injury and destruction on the people of Iraq. (And now that the inspectors have found a rocket that exceeds the legal limits, Saddam will not even admit that the rocket is in violation, just like he will not admit to having weapons of mass destruction.) I think what we have here is a man who knows what must be done, but just lacks the stones to pull the trigger. The author knows that with some bad guys, the carrot will not work and one must whack them with the stick to get their attention. He just doesn’t want to be the guy holding the stick, and he doesn’t’ want anyone else to swing it until we can say we gave peace a chance.

Well, Iraq has had a chance. Seventeen chances, more accurately. We can safely say that peace did not fail, but Saddam did, and now Iraq will have peace only through war. We must wait no longer. #

      ( 12:27 AM )  
Imagine Being in Saddam's Shoes

You spend billions of dollars - money you had to sneak into the country by smuggling oil through Syria and other illegal practices - to build a bigger, more powerful rocket, and this Swiss fellow comes along and tells you that you have to destroy it, as well as the fuel, manufacturing facility and even test facilities. I mean, had you know that was going to happen, you could have spent all that money buying food you're your starving people.

So, if you ignore the annoying Swiss fellow, your risk the wrath of the UN, which you've done time and time again with nothing but a slap on the wrist. But this time that Texan and that Tony fellow with the pesky accent probably aren't going to let you get away with it. And if you destroy the rockets, well those fellows are likely to attack anyhow, which doesn't quite seem fair. So do you buy a bit of time and make things more uncomfortable for the damn American and his Tony crony, or do you make it a bit more uncomfortable for their soldiers by lobbing rockets at their encampments in Kuwait? A tough choice.

And then there are all those glorious palaces! The workmanship and the splendor proclaim to all that see them that you are a great man. Sure, you could have spent the billions of dollars on improving your country's standard of living, medical services and even feeding the starving children, but a palace is more important than a peasant who's father is probably disloyal. If only there was something you could do to keep the American's and their radar-evading jets from bombing them to smithereens.

It was bad enough when you had to look out for your own countrymen, and even your own relatives, who were trying to kill you. Now there are reportedly specially trained snipers, pilotless aircraft and maybe even those pesky Navy Seals out to get you. Plus, Mossad agents, CIA agents and Northern Iraqi sympathizers. And the price on your head means just about anyone might take a pot shot and walk away a Millionaire.

Yep, it's a Tough Time to be Saddam Hussein. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. #