Posted on 03/18/2003 6:17:43 AM PST by conservativecorner
President Bush spent about 15 minutes Monday night speaking simply and clearly, with none of that phony diplomatic preening that has oozed out of the United Nations recently.
It was direct, just enough to reassure America that its president was resolute, just enough to give a clear message to the generals of the Iraqi dictator that if their boss won't stop the war to save their people, then they can stop it, now, by acting.
"All the decades of deceit and cruelty have now reached an end," Bush said in his speech to the nation. "Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing."
The diplomats of the UN won't like that, they'll wring their hands, they'll pout, particularly the French, probably because there was no sophisticated posing in it, none of the vague unctuousness they've become famous for lately.
And that's too bad.
It was plain speech from Bush on Monday. There were no clauses camouflaged within other clauses, and no nuance to obscure meaning. There was no shading and peace posing, no more playing for time.
Playing for time with Hussein has been the game of our queasy allies.
They've used Iraq and their votes on the UN Security Council as leverage. It has had less to do with Iraq than with the pursuit of their own power and influence, a means of dealing with the U.S. in the post-Cold War world.
Most of us who've been watching can understand the interests in play, the French in Europe, Russia, a former superpower finding it terribly difficult to see the world being sculpted without it.
So they pursue their interests and mask these interests in the language of diplomacy over Iraq. They ask for peace, but what they're doing is seeking a piece. And as they barter and pose, I keep remembering the silhouettes of the people jumping from the World Trade Center towers.
But their leaders' interests are not our interests, and our interests are about preventing rogue states like Iraq from teaming up with a terrorist organization, some group that could, possibly, open a canister of gas in an American harbor on a summer day.
The American president made the UN preening irrelevant Monday night.
He's been accused of being a simple man, a cowboy, but if so, then he's a simple man who's taking action.
I can think of complicated men, one especially, considered brilliant by his supporters, a man who charmed policy wonks with his grasp of foreign affairs.
But talking foreign policy and taking action are not the same thing. And this brilliant and complicated fellow dithered and hesitated, year after year with Hussein, and rattled his saber and shot off some missiles and declared victory in the late 1990s.
And all Hussein did was hunker down, snicker, and gather weapons, and wait.
What Bush did Monday was to explain to Americans why we can't wait, why we don't have to wait and why it is responsible to make war on Hussein's regime.
And it only took two paragraphs.
"In this century, when evil men plot chemical, biological and nuclear terror, a policy of appeasement could bring destruction of a kind never before seen on this Earth," Bush said.
"Terrorists and terrorist states do not reveal these threats with fair notice in formal declarations. And responding to such enemies only after they have struck first is not self-defense--it is suicide."
Just remember for yourselves, back to the days after Sept. 11, and the vows that were made, that we wouldn't let it happen again, that we'd do what was necessary.
Not everyone agrees with the president, and I can respect that.
There are some Democrats, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who opposed the congressional resolution authorizing military force against Hussein.
I think she's wrong, but she's consistent in her opposition, and I respect that.
Others, though, who voted for the resolution are changing their minds, seeking a safe perch from which to spit.
"I'm saddened," Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who supported the resolution before the November elections, said Monday. "Saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we're now forced to war. Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn't create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country."
I'm saddened, too, that Daschle doesn't have the guts to stand up and repudiate his prior vote in the Senate, and speak simply, and take a stand.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
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