On the Eve Of The War Against Terrorism's Iraqi Front
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| Headlines state, "Diplomatic
Failure," and even go so far as to specifically name nations, organizations, and
individual failures. Pundits and commentators, overly empowered by this Age of
Information, repeat that the War Against Terrorism's Iraqi Front was provoked by a failure
in diplomatic negotiations. |
| To
believe that any specific diplomatic effort failed and that
specifically because of that failure a new war front was
established, indicates a mistaken and incomplete perspective.
There are pundits who believe that efforts by all parties
including the 1991 coalition, the UN, the Arab League, today's
coalition, and President Bush's work to disarm Hussein's regime
are diplomatic failures. This mistaken perspective masks
the higher-level facts that actually motivate massive changes. |
| To
believe that 12 years of efforts by so many organizations and
individuals on so many fronts have failed, is to implicitly believe that all diplomatic
efforts will eventually succeed given enough time no matter what nations and what type of
leaderships are involved in the diplomatic negotiations. The practical points
include, "How much time can be allowed? How reasonable is each involved
party? How long can diplomatic negotiators ignore and disregard macro and micro
ramifications of non-action? Will more negotiations change the performance of
antagonists? Will more time ameliorate the reasonable demands of the
protagonists? Will a reasonable amount of time correct past and current damages and
result in significantly better conditions? |
| Certainly,
when these questions are answered as they have been regarding
Hussein's Iraqi regime's performance over the last three
decades, then yes, diplomacy has failed. It has failed due
to the intransigence of Hussein's Iraqi regime. It has
failed because Hussein-like regimes do not act according to
reasonable civilized norms. |
| There
comes a time in the course of civilized diplomatic negotiations
when even diplomats need to admit that a situation ---
for example, one involving a despotic, megalomaniacal dictator,
intent upon massive domination with no regard for human life or
personal liberties --- actually requires pursuit on
another level. Sometimes that next level includes the use
of force. This is the case in today's War Against
Terrorism's Iraqi Front. Use of the next level of
negotiations to force surrender of despots and weapons of mass
killing was appropriately initiated on March 17, 2003. |
| How
effectively the War Against Terrorism's Iraqi Front is executed
and determined to be successful will identify whether or not we
are witnessing World War III or an eruption of extremist
activism empowered by technology. |
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The Long Trek Toward
Success In The War Against Terrorism's Iraqi Front
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Headlines scream, "Looting By
Iraqis," "US Fails To Meet Its Peacekeeping Obligations," "Iraqis
Complain US Deposed Hussein, But Failed To Save National Treasures." It took
the US-led coalition less than three weeks to liberate the Iraqi people. Their
despotic dictator had been in control for 34 years, built a secret police structure
perhaps more effective than the Nazi's, murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, invaded
two sovereign nations, stole billions of dollars, tortured and terrified 23 million people
of whom 80% were born --- and therefore spent their entire lives ---
living in demented confinement. |
| The
United States has proven again, and in a different manner, that
by living under a capitalistic, representative democracy and
making quality education available for all its citizens, a
nation can provide an environment wherein most individuals can
achieve and succeed. It also demonstrated that when that
nation of successful individuals is threatened from without it
will retaliate to protect itself. ...And most
importantly, that nation will destroy the force of evil that
threatens its existence. |
| Immediately
upon being liberated, the Iraqi people acted as any living
creatures would naturally react to having their cage doors
opened. The Iraqi people ran free. In the course of this
running and celebrating they took out their one-third century
long, pent up vengeance upon government buildings, symbols of
the Hussein regime, and searched everywhere for remains and
records of their family members and friends who had disappeared
over the last decades. This free and natural quest by
everyday people gained momentum and turned into wild,
uncontrollable looting. Acting just like sports fans
who are ecstatic because their team won, the Iraqi people
--- with more justification than sports fans ---
went too far and their actions turned into looting. All
this lasted for some four or five days, depending upon the city. |
| But
fueled by the media --- the same media who just days
before had announced that it knew the US-led coalition's
Strategic Battle Plan was seriously flawed and was destined to
fail --- the Iraqi people tried to use media cameras
in search of help, but instead were lured into the media's
spider web. The media, always searching for pathetic
pawns, placed on stage select Iraqis with legitimate complaints
about looting of businesses and museums --- all this
within hours of liberation and before soldiers had time to
secure the cities and make them safe. The media shouted about
the looting subplot and under-played the main plots of
liberation, the end of Hussein's regime, and the amazingly
accurate and limited use of massive munitions and firepower by
coalition forces. And the media failed to highlight the
US's amazing use of technology to surgically destroy only
military targets and leave 98% of civilian targets intact.
And the media failed to highlight the amazingly low number of
civilian casualties and the still too high, but relatively low
number of coalition military deaths required to complete the
liberation of Iraq. |
| The
Iraqi people demonstrated that they are like all of us:
They are frail and can get scared when placed in a strange new
situation. In their case the strange situation is liberty
and the freedom to do what they want when they want to do it. |
| The
time has come for everyone to take responsibility. The
Iraqi people can now demonstrate how civilized they are by
controlling their looters and joining together beyond tribal
boundaries to build a new, free and prosperous Iraq. |
| The
United States and it genuine allies --- who are few
beyond the again great Britain --- must understand that today's world
is not controlled by gentlemen whose handshakes are their bond. It is filled with
many nations whose leaders follow polls of populaces who do not understand progress can
best be made through hard work, not through deceit and thievery. These so-called
leaders are often bent upon acquiring power the old fashioned way rather than through
building, educating and ensuring meaningful work to build productive societies. |
| That
is why the United States must implement the asymmetric policy
theorem, "Yesterday's friend may not be today's ally. We
must judge our friends based upon past performances, today's
actions and tomorrow's expectations." |
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By
Arnaud de Borchgrave
UPI Editor at Large
From the International Desk
Published 3/21/2003, 2:46 PM
"A group of American anti-war demonstrators who came to Iraq with
Japanese human shield volunteers made it across the [Jordanian] border today with 14 hours
of uncensored video, all shot without Iraqi government minders present. Kenneth Joseph, a
young American pastor with the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had
shocked me back to reality." Some of the Iraqis he interviewed on camera "told
me they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see
their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced
me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and
Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me
ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could
hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head." |
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