Was This War Necessary?--Not if America had been tougher over the last 20 years.

Wall St Journal ^ | 3-24-03 | ROBERT L. BARTLEY

[SJackson]

By now my enthusiasm for the liberation of Iraq is clear enough, I hope, that I can take a day to rain on the parade. As impressive as the current campaign is, American policy in dealing with Saddam Hussein has been a bipartisan chamber of horrors.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Thanks for posting this.

[samtheman]

We can go back further, to the 1970s, when Carter undercut the Shah of Iran, who could have been saved.

[joesnuffy]

The real root is the sickening kowtowing to the UN -that incompetent corrupt body of self serving pantywaistes from obscure pizzant countries that couldnt be successfull running a lemonade-ice stand in hell....

[Truthsearcher]

Don't disagree with this, but I think everything that happened before the fall of the USSR have to be given a free pass. Right or wrong, much of what we did we constrained by the presence of a bigger and more dangerous enemy.

[Waco]

In G 1, the UN required that forces NOT go to Baghdad and Saddam NOT be removed. The U.S. and allies agreed to this BEFORE action started. Had Bush 1 went on to B-Dad, the left and the DNC demoncraps were ready to jump all over it. Even the WSJ will "TWIST" history. Take note.

[Alberta's Child]

"Twisting history" is one thing, but make no mistake here -- the U.S. has shown repeatedly in recent history that it is usually incompetent at dealing with a foreign policy issue from start to finish.

[Golden Gate]

A Golden Invite to visit:
Democrats Need to Fully Support the Bush Administration in WARNING Turkey and the Kurds!

[q_an_a]

That is the single biggest point of our history. There is pre November 1989 and post 9/11. These dates shall be and should be the defining bit of all arguments. That is to say they are the caveat in regards to American actions and thinking. The leaders who lived under fighting Communists have a different frame of reference of the world than those who are fighting Islamist terror.

[maica]

Very True. Yesterday I was listening to a tape of PJ O'Rourke's book "Give War a Chance" - a title appropriate for today, but published in 1992. His first chapter was about the extraordinary event of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Anyone over the age of 10 when that happened knows what it meant to be East German or to be living in the countries under Soviet control.

But time goes on, and most of the college kids who have joined today's appeasement protests were only in kindergarten then. They know nothing of totalitarian repression or the reality of a 40+ year Cold War. Academe and our government education system have ignored the whole story of Communism. These kids have bought the lie that America's strength is to be feared and to be weakened.

[metesky]

Finger pointing gets us nowhere, especially when this is preaching to the choir, SJ.

Time to get on with the job at hand.

And indict the Toon crime family when it's over.

[Spruce]

I am very worried what passes for history in our schools today.

Defeating Communism was the focus of post WW2 American foreign policy yet the only reason my kids know anything at all about the cold war was from what I have taught them.

My youngest daughter, 6th grade, was reprimanded last friday for asking about the war. "We are not going to discuss that!" she was told.

The fifth column has a deep hold on us. I hope America Wakes up SOON.