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4-3-2003
Tom Daschle speciously lamented that President Bush's attempt at solving the
Iraqi situation diplomatically was a "failure" and "saddened" him. The hypocrisy in the Senator's statement became apparent
when it was reported that years earlier he had supported an attack on Iraq without any attempt at diplomacy. The fact is there
have been very few times in world history where diplomacy has ever freed a suppressed people from a despotic, dictatorial
regime.
Both the President and UK Prime Minster Tony Blair fully understand the undeniable reality of this situation:
disarmament could not have taken place without a regime change in Iraq. Military action was an eventual inevitability as long
as Saddam was intent on using diplomatic manipulation to maintain his control of the Iraqi people and the fear of terrorism
in the region and abroad.
Because of their unwillingness to allow another year to pass where thousands of Iraqi children
would die of starvation or another family would be senselessly tortured and slaughtered, President Bush and Tony Blair have
been attacked by people from their own countries hiding behind the guise of their "freedom of speech". Their consequential
attitudes' showing no concern for the Iraqis lack of freedom.
It was this mentality that prompted photographer and
potential human shield for Saddam, Daniel Pepper, to admit that he was, "less interested in standing up for Iraqis' rights
than protesting against the US and UK governments". But he, along with Reverend Kenneth Johnson; another human shield, had
major changes of heart after spending time in Baghdad.
Rev. Johnson reported that Iraqis told him on camera that,
"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". Mr. Pepper wrote in The Daily Telegraph of London of a taxi driver who confessed that
Iraqis' understood "the American's don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and Saddam's palaces. We want
America to bomb Saddam".
Is this the 'fictitiousness' the incredulous Mr. Moore was alluding to when he was spouting
his diatribe at the Oscars? Listening to many of these people one would believe that the tyrannical dictator who needs to
be bombed lives in the White House instead of Baghdad. Maybe they should stop their monotonous bombast of the President for
just a moment and listen to what some of those from Iraq have to say.
Reporter James Meek wrote in The Guardian that
after US Marines took the town of Safwan in Iraq, an Iraqi man cried on the shoulder of the Egyptian translator, "You just
arrived," he said. "Youre late. What took you so long? God help you become victorious. I want to say hello to Bush, to shake
his hand. We came out of the grave."
Many of the Bush haters have started the ponderous rant of how the world was
behind us after the tragedy of 911 and now they arent because of this military action. These people are wrong. The world wasnt
behind us, they felt sorry for us. Feelings of sorrow and sympathy wont end terrorism, just as the Iraqi people, the majority
of Americans, and President Bush understand: taking action is the only way to defeat terror.
Lee P. Butler
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