They were still Saddam's useful idiots

Last year we were able to watch the countryside march from our own balcony; Saturday’s peace march was routed by Lower Regent Street, so we walked down to the corner opposite the Athenaeum Club and watched from there. One could scarcely have told the two marches apart unless one was a tailor. The countryside marchers were, I think, wearing their genuine working clothes, the corduroys fresh from the seat of a tractor. The peace marchers looked more urban; they dressed as they might for a football match or visit to the local pub. Marches are dressed-down affairs nowadays; when did anyone last demonstrate in their Ascot clothes? Probably the Suffragettes. On these occasions, I read the placards. There was more humour in the countryside placards, but I liked one of Saturday’s slogans, “Make Tea not War”, which a few of the marchers were carrying. The countryside marchers looked more cheerful, partly because they had better weather, but partly because country people treat a visit to town as a party. Both marches had their quota of children, probably more from the countryside; both had their quota of wheelchairs. On Saturday I saw an old lady being wheeled along by a policeman, a touch of Britishness which might have come out of an Ealing comedy.

There was, I thought, one slogan which was missing. There were quite a number which called for “Freedom for Palestine”; I looked in vain for one which called for “Freedom for Iraq”. I did not hear all of the speeches, though I watched Jesse Jackson on television. From what I did hear, none of the speakers expressed any wish to free Iraq, let alone proposing any policy which might help to achieve that.

Obviously, there is a logical difficulty in this. The marchers believed themselves to be kindly people and most of them are. Any demonstration is bound to contain people with underlying anger; in this demonstration there seemed to be an ugly vein of anti-Americanism which had little to do with peace. But the great majority of the marchers were people of genuine compassion, marching because they want other people to enjoy lives of peace and toleration. If they had been marching against apartheid, as many of them no doubt did in the old days, it would have been to draw attention to the intolerable tyranny of the apartheid regime.

In the case of Iraq, the issue of tyranny was passed by in silence. We all know that the apartheid government killed in hundreds, perhaps thousands, but Saddam Hussein has killed in hundreds of thousands. Indeed, the million people on the London march were a shocking image of the million who have died because of him. Nelson Mandela was unjustly imprisoned for decades; if he had been an Iraqi, and acted as he did, Mandela would be dead long since. Not a hero, or a President, but an unmarked grave in the sand. This great demonstration — and it was a great demonstration — was not assembled to support the liberation of Iraq, but to oppose it.

It will be said that this is unfair, that the demonstrators were opposed only to US action without the approval of the United Nations. But that is not really true. The main thrust of the demonstration, and most of the slogans, went against any war in Iraq, with or without UN approval.

The demonstrators were not people who had opposed Saddam’s refusal to disarm under the terms of the UN ceasefire in 1991. They were not people who had marched against Iraq’s treatment of the missing hostages seized in Kuwait, or of the Iranian prisoners of war, or of Iraqi dissidents, or of the Kurds and Marsh Arabs. All of these things had passed them by. When the United States decided to act to enforce the UN resolution on disarmament, or to remove the regime, then, and only then, they decided to protest. Subjectively the march was for peace; objectively it helped Saddam Hussein. He knows that; the march was shown for seven hours on Iraqi television.

Suppose that the peace demonstrators have their way. Vetoes will be passed in the United Nations. Under the pressure of public opinion, the Bush and Blair Administrations will postpone and possibly eventually abandon their attempt to enforce the UN resolutions, including Resolution 1441. Obviously that would be a victory for Saddam Hussein, giving him the glory of having seen off the power of the United States, not once, but twice. His influence would be at its height throughout the Arab, and the whole Islamic, world. Israel would be threatened, as well as Kuwait, but so would the governments of the other Arab countries.

All of this would be true, but what would it do to the people of Iraq? It would slam the prison gates shut, perhaps for another generation. Saddam has two powerful sons, as evil as he is himself, and probably as dangerous. If his regime should survive now, it would be far stronger than before. There was little discussion of the present condition of Iraq on Saturday’s demonstration. All that the main speakers would say was: “We all disapprove of Saddam Hussein. That is common ground.” They should have added: “We all disapprove of Saddam Hussein but we are determined to protect him.” That is the first flaw in the argument of the march.

Yet George Bush is not going to back off. The second flaw in the argument of the march is that the people were marching for peace, but the march was moving the world towards war.

The United States has a settled national policy, which continues to enjoy majority support in public opinion and Congress, that the US cannot accept the possession of weapons of mass destruction by the present Iraq regime. In the last resort, which is now quite close, Iraq must disarm or the US will invade. In Britain, we do not control this policy. We may or may not agree with it. But the decision is an American one. As the US supplies the only substantial capacity for the enforcement of UN resolutions, the US and not the UN will take the vital decision.

As this is so, the only way to avoid war is to convince Saddam Hussein that he has no choice left but to disarm. He has successfully avoided that conclusion for 12 years. Not unreasonably, the United States is not prepared to give him more time, whatever we may think. Peace is not impossible, but it is almost inconceivable unless Iraq disarms. Therefore any action which encourages Saddam Hussein not to disarm is extremely dangerous; it makes war more likely.

Beyond question, the Franco-German stand in the United Nations has encouraged Saddam Hussein. One must assume that these sophisticated governments knew what they were doing. Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder must take the responsibility for making war more likely. Most of the marchers are not willing to face the reality of this risk. They are closer to Charles Kennedy than Jacques Chirac, innocents in a wicked world, such people as Lenin, when referring to foreign sympathisers with his dictatorship, unkindly called “useful idiots”. The marchers did not think they were helping to maintain the torture chambers of Baghdad, but they were. They did not think that they were making war more likely — but they were. And they are good people. One should not forget that.

We have seen all this in history, again and again. It is the syndrome of the Children’s Crusade. The best of motives, particularly the search for peace, can lead the best of people, kindly, conscientious neighbours and friends, to take actions which are potentially disastrous. Many of them confront dissimilar situations with a single mind-set coloured by left-wing idealism or pacifism. Sometimes they are right, as they were about apartheid. More often they fail to realise that strength, which they distrust, is necessary to resist evil.

Throughout the Cold War there were many innocent dupes who played the Soviet game, who joined peace committees, went on peace marches and opposed nuclear weapons. They were so shocked by the fact of nuclear arms that, from the Stalin years onwards, they campaigned to disarm the West unilaterally. Their motives were mostly good, but they were objectively supporting the Soviet tyranny. Even before the Second World War, the pacifist campaign against rearmament, which dominated the Left of the 1930s, objectively helped Hitler.

I respect the good intentions of those who marched on Saturday. Unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I am glad that our Prime Minister is not anti-American or an appeaser.

Historical Justification For War With Iraq

People talk about the "cost of war" but fail to discuss the cost of inaction. "Those who do not LEARN from history are bound to repeat it."

The nay-sayers, protesters and liberal media "talking heads" are screaming, "Why should we go to war with Iraq?" "What is the justification for taking preemptive action?" "We must not upset the apple cart in the Middle East" The answer to all of these questions is simple: History teaches us we must take action before tens, hundreds of thousands or millions of Americans die as a direct result of our inaction.

While teaching this Spring at a University in St. Petersburg, Russia I took the time to go to Piskaryovsoye Cemetery, a mass graveyard outside the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. I purposely went there as a visceral, visual reminder of what happens when people, leaders and nations of the world try to appease/make peace with or otherwise ignore madmen bent on world conquest and domination.

This site contains over 186 mass graves. I know because I took the time to count each of them and to solemnly ponder their contents. THERE ARE OVER 490,000 PEOPLE BURIED THERE! People just like you and I, people who once lived, breathed, love and dreamed of bright futures for themselves and their children. Over 900, 000 people died in the city of St. Petersburg alone (200, 000 just in Jan-Feb 1942) and MOST of them were civilians; women and children.

In Kiev, Ukraine I visited Babyar, another mass grave containing over 100,000 Jews killed in 30 days shortly after the Nazis conquered the city.

All of this happened because the leaders of the world, including Stalin, sought to appease a little madman who amassed weapons and an army in order to dominate his neighbors and the World, by the name of Adolph Hitler.

A week later I went to London and visited the Imperial War Museum. There, encased in glass I saw the actual Munich Pact letter signed by Hitler and Chamberlain in which Hitler "promised" in writing to end his aggression... promises always look good in writing. After the meeting Adolf Hitler said: "Our enemies are little worms. I saw them at Munich."

Neville Chamberlain waved the letter before the English press and the world and said: "...My good friends, for the second time in our history, a British Prime Minister has returned from Germany bringing peace with honor. I believe it is peace for our time. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep." -- Neville Chamberlain, September 30, 1938.

Europe believed his hollow promises and went back to sleep. They tried to "contain" and "appease" Hitler, the exact same advice people who ignore reality are giving us today regarding Saddam... the result; HE ATTACKED THEM ANYWAY AND 80 MILLION PEOPLE DIED IN THE PROCESS... people like you and me, people like your children, your husbands, your wives, your grandparents.

Like Hitler, Saddam has given his word and made a multitude of promises for the sole purpose of keeping us from stopping his WMD programs and his ultimate aims for aggression. The World needs to be reminded that to date HE HAS KEPT NONE OF THEM. History teaches us this lesson; if we do not deal with and stop Saddam now, the cost will be far, far greater to accomplish this in the future.

So "Why act now?" Because this is the reality of our current situation; Muslim fundamentalists all over the world have declared jihad on America. They want us (civilians, men, women and children) DEAD and are actively plotting to kill, enslave and destroy us. All of this is taking place at the same time Saddam continues to produce weapons grade Anthrax, VX gas, and hastily works on developing nukes and these other "goodies" to give to toady Muslim terrorists to use against America. A report out this week details the "worst case scenario" 3 MILLION DEAD due to the release of 250 pounds of weapons grade Anthrax in either LA or San Francisco.

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/bayarea/3995198.htm

America and it's leaders and people will either learn from history or repeat it. History provides us and our Allies with all the reasons and justification we need to preemptively go to war with Iraq and to rid the world of Saddam. The only other option the is to wait until he or one of his Muslim lackeys hits us and thousands or millions die.

The appeasers advise us to "wait, for “proof” do nothing, to sit around, contain, appease and take Saddam at his word... until we are attacked, the problem is then it will be too late.

America's response must be that of G. BUSH Sr.: 'Sorry, ... NOT GONNA DO IT... WOULDN'T BE PRUDENT!"

History warns us, if we do not deal with this threat now, the next attack, Anthrax, Small pox, dirty bomb, suitcase nuke, etc... (and it is coming if we don't stop them, it is just a matter of time) will make Sept. 11th look like a picnic.

Liberals get all choked up about "innocents" getting killed in Iraq. They fail to mention that 3,000 American innocents were murdered on September 11, 01. WE ARE ALREADY AT WAR, IT IS TIME WE AS A NATION DEFEND OURSELVES.

By the way, I am not some "arm chair general" who never served but is gung-ho to send others off to war (the "straw man argument). I am a former Vietnam vet... USN 68 - 71 who served in the theater of operations. I know the cost of war, but the cost of inaction is, in this case too high to contemplate.

If you don't believe me just take a trip to Piskaryovsoye Cemetery outside of the city of St. Petersburg, Russia. You will not find any names of the dead because there are nearly a half million people buried there; just 186 plus mass graves, each containing a simple marker noting the year those interred in each grave died. This is what we can expect if we do not respond to the "clear and present danger" that Saddam and Muslim fundamentalists represent to America and it's Allies.

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