thedrifter
02-21-03, 12:34 PM
02/21/2003
Give peace chance by aiding Saddam?
So here is what the French-German breech of faith and misguided anti-war protests around the world have wrought: A resurgent confidence in Iraq that officials there can give the back of their hand to United Nations inspectors and an increased likelihood of violent conflict. The way to peace has always depended, more than anything, on the civilized world taking so unified and resolute a stand on regime change and disarmament in Iraq that not even a megalomaniac like Saddam Hussein could imagine survival without compliance.
If the United Nations had fulfilled its role in a clearheaded, unflinching manner, and if protesters had protested the right thing — a genocidal, terrorist-affiliated, power-hungry madman producing weapons of mass murder — there might have been some slight chance of Saddam’s going into exile. No guarantee. But a chance.
Instead, we have France and Germany siding with their Iraqi oil interests and saying inspections might accomplish what they have failed to accomplish in their incarnations since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. We have a United Nations hesitating to take its own resolutions anymore seriously than Iraq ever has. We have protesters behaving as if President Bush is the enemy. And, as reported in the Washington Post, we have an Iraqi government figuring that it does not have to permit its armament scientists to have private sessions with inspectors after all.
Of course, this latest piece of obstruction is hardly a break with Iraq’s overall pattern of behavior. Saddam has made it sound a few times as if he might go along with full disclosure, but as Secretary of State Colin Powell demonstrated in his U.N. speech, Saddam’s real reaction has been to sneak around the inspection process. Given the slightest bit of hope he can outwit his adversaries again, Saddam will not hang up his ambitions. Now he has even more hope, and he has grown more openly defiant..
His barely disguised nose-thumbing leaves two options. One is that the United States and its allies can strike soon, relieving the world of his murderous ways and making sure that all non-conventional weapons are destroyed and a peaceful government is put in place. Or, the United States and its allies can wait until Saddam has nuclear weaponry and has done who knows what with it — flattening New York City with an untraceable suitcase bomb? — and then face a far more problematic and dangerous war.
We’re sure that most of those demonstrably advocating peace are sincere in their beliefs and have good intentions.
Ironically, their protests are helping to destroy the only true option for a lasting peace.
© 2001 Jacksonville Daily News.
Sempers,
Roger
Give peace chance by aiding Saddam?
So here is what the French-German breech of faith and misguided anti-war protests around the world have wrought: A resurgent confidence in Iraq that officials there can give the back of their hand to United Nations inspectors and an increased likelihood of violent conflict. The way to peace has always depended, more than anything, on the civilized world taking so unified and resolute a stand on regime change and disarmament in Iraq that not even a megalomaniac like Saddam Hussein could imagine survival without compliance.
If the United Nations had fulfilled its role in a clearheaded, unflinching manner, and if protesters had protested the right thing — a genocidal, terrorist-affiliated, power-hungry madman producing weapons of mass murder — there might have been some slight chance of Saddam’s going into exile. No guarantee. But a chance.
Instead, we have France and Germany siding with their Iraqi oil interests and saying inspections might accomplish what they have failed to accomplish in their incarnations since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. We have a United Nations hesitating to take its own resolutions anymore seriously than Iraq ever has. We have protesters behaving as if President Bush is the enemy. And, as reported in the Washington Post, we have an Iraqi government figuring that it does not have to permit its armament scientists to have private sessions with inspectors after all.
Of course, this latest piece of obstruction is hardly a break with Iraq’s overall pattern of behavior. Saddam has made it sound a few times as if he might go along with full disclosure, but as Secretary of State Colin Powell demonstrated in his U.N. speech, Saddam’s real reaction has been to sneak around the inspection process. Given the slightest bit of hope he can outwit his adversaries again, Saddam will not hang up his ambitions. Now he has even more hope, and he has grown more openly defiant..
His barely disguised nose-thumbing leaves two options. One is that the United States and its allies can strike soon, relieving the world of his murderous ways and making sure that all non-conventional weapons are destroyed and a peaceful government is put in place. Or, the United States and its allies can wait until Saddam has nuclear weaponry and has done who knows what with it — flattening New York City with an untraceable suitcase bomb? — and then face a far more problematic and dangerous war.
We’re sure that most of those demonstrably advocating peace are sincere in their beliefs and have good intentions.
Ironically, their protests are helping to destroy the only true option for a lasting peace.
© 2001 Jacksonville Daily News.
Sempers,
Roger