Taking A Stand: War is better now than later
I could care less the rest of the world doesn’t like the United States. It seems much of our fellow world members have become just a bunch of whiners and malcontents, trying to blame their underachievement on the West.
Should we be in Iraq? Well, if I had my wishes I’d rather avoid what will be a costly war in terms of American lives, but we’re at a point where it’s either now, or five years from now. Saddam Hussein has shown he is a power-hungry dictator who will stop at nothing short of controlling the whole region and its oil reserves. Give him 10 years and he’d probably build a superpower with all the wealth at his disposal.
So it begs the question these liberal protesters are avoiding — do you want to battle a disorganized bunch of rag-tag fighters now, or an organized, well-equipped force later? Do you want to risk waiting for a Saddam with tactical battlefield nukes which can kill thousands of our troops? That’s what will happen in just a few years, and make no mistake, once he has that capability, he will march on his neighbors to take their wealth.
Did those opposing the war learn nothing from the appeasement of Hitler’s Germany? Had the European community united in 1936 instead of giving in, there likely would have been no World War II. Think about it. Hitler broke the terms of the Versilles Treaty and no one sought to make him keep the terms (Sound like Saddam’s actions with the U.N. resolutions?).
Once Hitler knew there was no retribution for his actions, he built his powerful war machine and the rest is history. By the way, just as Hitler, Saddam has also showed a willingness to commit genocide. There’s one big difference between the two, Saddam has an endless supply of riches through his oil which could make him even more lethal than Hitler.
I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of the Arab nations belly-aching all the time about U.S. aggression when they’ve been trying to topple tiny Israel since 1948. They cheered when our twin towers fell and they dance in the street burning American flags. I have no use for any of them since they just want to pull the rest of the world down into their misery.
If it weren’t for their oil, all they’d be is a bunch of people who dress like Abraham living in a land of a bunch of sand and rocks. It’s 2003 people, buy yourself a Playstation.
And their whole philosophy amazes me. They’re so focused on the “evil Zionists” they don’t even see the true threat to the region, that being Saddam Hussein. He’s no more of a Muslim than I am. He plays the part to get sympathy from his neighbors, all the time waiting for his opportunity to pounce. Instead of getting their towels handed to them every 10 years by the Israelis, perhaps they should united against the one country which has show aggression in the region — Iraq.
And what about our so-called friends in the world? The Saudis obviously have a short memory seeing they were just short of being a southern Iraqi state back in 1991. I didn’t hear them complaining about America back then. And the French? Come on, we’ve bailed them out more times than a drunk uncle at the county jail. And since when are the Germans afraid of war? They’ve started almost every major conflict in the last century. Let’s make sure to take careful notes as to who our friends are, and let’s not soon forget it.
We must see this through to the end. We’ve let down those opposing Saddam on more than one occasion, urging them into an uprising during the first Gulf War, only to leave before the job was done and leaving those who did participate in the uprising to be slaughtered. You want to restore trust, then don’t leave until Saddam and his murdering thugs are swinging from the business end of a rope or at least sharing a cell with Noriega in a federal prison.
(Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)