Capture Won't Mean Much

I don't believe the capture of Saddam Hussein will have any effect on the guerrilla war being conducted against Americans and their Iraqi allies.

Saddam's power was always his ability to command and control. The day he went on the run, he lost that power. He couldn't command or control anyone. On the contrary, he was at the mercy of those willing to hide him and those who might choose to betray him.

As his pictures show, he's a tired, worn-out old geezer. One has to give him credit for being much more slippery than the United States thought he would be (we've been trying to kill him since 1991), but the end was inevitable. It will also prove to be anti-climactic, after the initial celebrations are finished.

Guerrilla war is a young man's game, and the people behind the attacks are young buckaroos, some perhaps with the ambition to be a future Saddam. They were never fighting for Saddam, and I doubt any thoughtful Iraqi ever believed he would come back. He was finished the day the U.S. Army occupied Baghdad.

No Arab I've ever talked to had anything kind to say about Saddam. He was called a thug, and many added that he was stupid. Still, some in the Arab world admired him simply because he defied the United States. These people will be disappointed that he didn't put up a suicidal fight, but who knows what condition his mind is in now. It's been a long and bloody journey since he was a 10-year-old boy running in the streets of Tikrit. In the months before the war, it was said that he had taken to writing romance novels. It could be that he's been out of touch with reality for some time.

At any rate, except for the embarrassment of not being able to find him, he hasn't been our problem, and now that we have found him, it won't solve our problem. Iraq remains as it was. There are those who would like to drag Saddam through the streets, and there are those who would like to drag Americans through the street. We still have to restore services and security and do it fast, as the longer it takes, the more Iraqis will be inclined to join the resistance.

Personally, I have never thought it wise to spend $150 billion rebuilding Iraq when so much of America needs rebuilding. I guess there's something wrong with my psyche, but whether Iraq is a democracy or a dictatorship doesn't matter in the least to me. Call me a provincial. I'm only interested in the welfare of the American people. The war and occupation of Iraq strike me as a sideshow, a political stunt to distract Americans from the problems we face here at home.

Even if we are 100 percent successful, even if we restore Iraqi prosperity and install a Thomas Jefferson who speaks Arabic, all it will mean for the American people is that we will be poorer than we were before we spent all that blood and treasure. The Iraqi people might be better off, but we won't be.

And if doing something won't make things better for the American people, why the heck does the government do it? This war has been a bamboozle job from the start. Americans were conned into believing Saddam had something to do with the Sept. 11 attacks, that he amassed weapons of mass destruction, and that he had ties to international terrorists. None of that has proven to be true, and I suspect that the U.S. government knew it was not true from the get-go.

Go ahead and celebrate Saddam's capture, if that's your wish, but I personally don't think our washing somebody else's dirty laundry is anything to celebrate. If you will think about it, you will see that whether Saddam is dead, on the run or in jail has no effect on your life whatsoever. And I don't think aspiring to be the janitor of the world is a goal worthy of the United States. Let the people in every country clean up their own messes.

Doesn't mean much ???

This former socialist dictator, Butcher of Baghdad, The Dear Leader, The Glorious Leader, Direct Descendant of the Prophet, the Lion of Babylon, Anointed One, the Father of the Two Lion Cubs, the Anointed One, the Successor of Nebuchadnezzar, chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, field marshall of its armies, doctor of its laws, great uncle to all its peoples, the Modern Saladin of Islam had been brought low, forced to bow down, Run to ground, whisked away to an "undisclosed location" to contemplate his fate while waiting to stand trial for his vast crimes against humanity.

Here is a voice of sanity versus the insanity of al Qaeda Charlie:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1045994/posts

Why I'm voting for Bush (Former NYC Mayor, Democrat Ed Koch)
Jewish World Review ^ | Dec. 24, 2003 | Edward I. Koch

Posted on 12/24/2003 5:48:34 AM PST by SJackson

Last week I served as moderator of a forum on the contributions to America's intellectual life made by Eric Breindel who died in 1998 at the age of 42. At the time of his death, Eric was editorial page editor of the New York Post.

In its report on the forum, The New York Sun stated: "Mr. Koch told the crowd Wednesday night that he would vote for President Bush, entirely on the basis of his concern for embattled Israel."

I don't believe that is what I said. To the best of my recollection, my impromptu remarks mirrored what I have been saying for over a year.

I intend to vote for President George W. Bush in the next election, because in my view he is best able to wage the war against international terrorism. There is no greater threat to the United States than that posed by Al-Qaeda and similar groups. President Bush has confronted that threat head on.

After 9/11, the President announced the Bush Doctrine, which in my opinion rivals in importance the Monroe Doctrine which barred foreign imperialism in the Western Hemisphere, and the Truman Doctrine which sought to contain Communism around the world. The Bush Doctrine, simply stated by the President before a joint session of Congress, is "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." The President has applied that doctrine in Afghanistan and Iraq and has put other countries on notice that he will do so elsewhere, if necessary.

Of course, there are many other important foreign and domestic issues facing Americans. I do not agree with the President on any major domestic issue, ranging from tax relief to the recently-enacted Medicare prescription drug law. But these concerns pale in comparison with the problem of international terrorism. It is the primary responsibility of government to provide for our physical safety. A president who does not realize this puts all of us at the mercy of fanatics who would not hesitate to use conventional and non-conventional weapons with the aim of killing as many innocents as possible. The United States, of course, is not the only country victimized by terrorism. That list is growing and now includes Turkey, Russia, India, Malaysia, Ireland, Israel and Colombia, to name a few.

I do not believe the major contenders for the presidential nomination in the Democratic primaries have the stomach to confront the terrorist scourge comparable to President Bush. This is especially true of the current Democratic frontrunner, Howard Dean, whose stated reason for entering the race is his opposition to the war. Most of the other candidates who were in Congress and voted for the war resolution are now tacking to the wind to satisfy the left-wing constituency, hoping if they win to move to the center before the general election. The exception is Joe Lieberman, whom most observers believe has no chance of winning the nomination.

Excerpted - click for full article ^
Source: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1203/koch.html

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