Capture Won't Mean Much

King Features Syndicate, Inc. ^ | 12-24-03 | Reese, Charley

[Theodore R.]

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.

© 2003 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

[Theodore R.]

as a "youthful discretion."

I meant "youthful indiscretion." In his later years, Gerald R. Ford, Jr., of course became such a part of the "eastern establishment" that he was denying the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe back in 1976.

[Grampa Dave]

The capture of $oddomite means a lot or the Pali loving Reese would not be trying to lie about it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1046255/posts

Saddam’s Lessons to the Islamo-Nazis
INN.com ^ | 12/25/03 | Beth Goodtree


Posted on 12/24/2003 2:25:01 PM PST by veronica


Now that the United States has captured Saddam Hussein, the self-deceiving Islamo-Nazi world was shown what the civilized world has known all long. And if they are smart, they will take this example to heart. Saddam is living proof that everything they believe is not merely a lie, but that their so-called heroes are nothing more than sniveling, parasitic cowards.

It was with not some little humor that I read in many Arab papers quotes, as well as editorials, about how the Arabs and Muslims, once again, were humiliated by the big bad West. It seems that every time the Islamo-Nazis are caught with their evil intentions and deeds exposed, they blame it on America, the Jews, and Western civilization in general. And they accuse us all of ‘humiliating’ them. In fact, it has become their mantra, because they have found that certain weak-minded, non-thinking, pseudo-intellectual people actually believe it. What we really saw was one of the chief Islamo-Nazi leaders exposed as a fraud as regards everything he and his followers espouse. And it was downright humiliating – but well deserved.

Saddam’s capture showed the world that he was not merely a hypocrite, but a deranged, yet cunning, coward, who doesn’t believe a word of what he has preached. For example, Saddam happily funded Palestinian genocide bombers (homicide bombers whose sole intention is to kill as many Jews as possible, and thus continue the genocide started by one of their self-declared heroes, Adolf Hitler). Saddam gave out many, many millions of dollars in reward money to anyone who murdered Jews, thus supporting their vile (as well as ridiculous) Islamo-Nazi teachings. These teachings, issued in fatwas by a host of imams including the official one for the Palestinian Arab entity, claim that it is not merely a noble and religious duty to commit suicide during a wartime situation, but it will reap heavenly rewards.

Then the world got to witness Saddam’s true belief. Unlike his over-the-top motivational speeches encouraging Arabs to fight and commit suicide, he himself was found in a vertical hidey-hole more reminiscent of a coffin than anything else. He had on him $750,000 and a loaded pistol. And instead of fighting for his freedom, or even committing a ‘noble’ suicide, as he has preached to others, Saddam reportedly tried to bribe his way out of his situation. Saddam demonstrated, in a way that no one else could have, that suicide and fighting are not noble when it came to saving his own skin. Saddam proved that he believes the fascist, Islamo-Nazi interpretation of Islam he preaches is false, that he’s a liar and a manipulator, and his supporters are fools and dupes (at best). He also showed the entire world that the Arab ‘heroes,’ as well as the jihadists, are cowering little animals, willing to sell out their professed ideals and betray their supporters to save their own hides.

Interestingly, Arabs place ‘face’ above everything, even above the lives of their family and loved ones. We see this demonstrated time and again in the so-called ‘honor’ killings, where a parent might murder a child if they thought the child brought dishonor to the family. Granted, this is a very primitive behavior indicative of the backwardness of the society that sanctions it. And while the civilized world cannot make a society mature beyond their capabilities or desires, Saddam’s ignoble downfall shows the Arab world how their entire raison d’etre is based upon false notions and a failure to face even the most basic reality. It also demonstrates that instead of bravery, their heroes exhibit the utmost cowardice. It further shows the Arabs that to be a terrorist or a tyrant is to face well-justified humiliation. If they are so concerned with face, they’d best change their behaviors or face continual self-humiliation.

And finally, there is one more lesson the Arab world should finally learn. (Maybe the umpteenth time will be the charm...) Here it is for those willing to heed: Anyone who demonizes Jews or sanctions their genocide always, always gets destroyed. History is replete with examples. The Pharaohs and their society were destroyed. The ancient Greek empire, the Catholic Church’s stranglehold on Europe, which culminated in the Inquisition, Stalin’s Soviet Union, and Hitler, to name but a few. And now Saddam.

If the Arab/Muslim world is smart – although Dr. Mahathir, the former head of the Organization of Islamic Countries, declared in his opening speech in October of this year that they aren’t – they will accept Israel and the Jews as a welcome member of the Middle East and the oldest historical indigenous people. Otherwise, I predict that the Arab/Muslim world we know today will soon become a mere footnote, meriting derision and scorn, in the history books of tomorrow.