"How to Save the Airline Industry" (or, "Don't attack Iraq")

Memo To: Tom Ridge, Homeland Security director
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: Don't Invade Iraq

Remember, Tom, that I had warned twice in 1998 that we should be trying to figure out why the Muslims tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993. If we didn't, and take steps to correct the problem, I told Chairman Jesse Helms of the Foreign Relations Committee they would come back and bring down the Twin Towers. Richard Perle, who is telling President Bush to invade Iraq as soon as possible, and bring down Saddam Hussein, has it exactly wrong. If the President pulls the trigger without broad support in the Islamic world, it will be the end of commercial air traffic in the United States for a long time to come. We will be back to riding buses and trains.

It is no secret that one of your #1 worries in trying to protect the Homeland is the Stinger missile, which a couple of guys with a truck could use to bring down a jumbo jet if they find a good spot near a major airport. With all this baloney about how Saddam Hussein is trying to develop a weapon of mass destruction, we seem to forget that the Twin Towers came down with box cutters and a dozen maniacs willing to die for the cause. You should know by now how impossible it is for Saddam to acquire a nuclear weapon or a weaponized chem/bio weapon. You surely have been told that if he took the very first steps to do so, we would know about it from our spy satellites. It would take billion-dollar investments to reconstitute the facilities he had in the 1980's during Iraq' s war with Iran. If you don't believe me, ask Scott Ritter, who was on the UN weapons inspection team for several years and watched the destruction of the facilities.

As for nukes, ask Dr. Gordon Prather, who knows more about these matters than anyone I knew in our government. A nuclear physicist, he was deputy assistant secretary of the army for science and tech in the Reagan years, and Richard Perle has used all his wiles to keep him out of the information flow to the President. Gordon will tell you the chief threat facing our American people is not Iraqi nukes, but terrorist Stingers. The Stinger missile is what won the Afghanistan war against he USSR. It is cheap and incredibly effective in blowing up airplanes at relatively low altitudes, like Continental, United, and American jets taking off or landing at our airports. Stingers are manufactured in the United States and Dr. Prather believes they can be stolen while in shipment. They are also small enough to be smuggled into the country in freighters.

You know me, Tom, by reputation and through our personal contacts through our mutual friend Bob Novak. I'd like you to really, really understand that once the terrorists brought down the Twin Towers, they accomplished what their cohorts could not in 1993. They got our attention. I belive there would be no more terrorist attacks on the United States as long as we responded correctly, which we did. The two things the President did that made the difference were: 1) he got the support of Pakistan in going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and 2) he committed himself to a Palestinian state. Both of these achievements were possible because of the advice of Secretary of State Colin Powell. They were fought by Perle and his henchmen, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy Defense Secretary. You must have noted that on FoxNewsSunday, when Tony Snow asked former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger if he twice mentioned Perle and Wolfowitz in negative terms because he thinks them naive or reckless. To which Eagleburger replied: "I must tell you, I think they're devious."

If the administration you serve does not invade Iraq, Tom, it will blow up Perle's chessgame with Israeli's Likudniks, who are doing everything to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state. The hard-core Zionists still believe they deserve ALL the Holy Land. If President Bush returns his focus to Israel and the Palestinian issue, away from Baghdad, he will be able to push Ariel Sharon toward a negotiated settlement. As long as this is happening, there would be NO INCENTIVE for any Islamic terrorist to lift a finger against the United States. All the Muslims want is a state for the Palestinians. That goes for Saddam Hussein himself. Once there is a Palestinian state, after 54 years of ups and downs, there will be no political reason for Israel to wish death and destruction on Iraq - a secular state which respects religious freedom for Christians and Jews. How telling it was for the Likud government to announce over the weekend that it would like the United States to invade Iraq as soon as possible.

A word about Richard Perle: I've known him since 1969 and have for many years considered him a friend and ally in our fight against the Communists in Moscow and Beijing. He has a high IQ, but I have not heard him say anything about foreign policy that struck me as being thought through. Colin Powell privately refers to him and Wolfowitz as "the bombers." The reason, I think, is that Perle's mentor and father-in-law, Albert Wohlstetter, was the brains in the family, and when Albert died, Richard inherited his global network of political supporters. I have likened Richard to the Sorcerer's Apprentice, a Mickey Mouse who thinks he can do magic by using the Sorcerer's wand. If you scratch Perle, you will find a mediocre strategist, a checker player at best.

The main point, though, is my warning that if we do invade Iraq because Richard Perle says we have to do so, we may have to forget about commercial air travel for many years. There would be no threat to homeland security or the airline industry if we can encourage Israel's government to accept a Palestinian state. It is and has for years been the primary source of tension in the Middle East.

All the Muslims want is a state for the Palestinians. That goes for Saddam Hussein himself. Once there is a Palestinian state, after 54 years of ups and downs, there will be no political reason for Israel to wish death and destruction on Iraq - a secular state which respects religious freedom for Christians and Jews.

A telling, and false premise, based on what facts? He cites none, because he has not developed that argument from logic or reason. Mr. Wanniski is an anti-Semite (and if he is Jewish, he's a Jewish anti-Semite nonetheless). There is no way a reasonable, unbiased person could come to the assumption that "all the Muslims want" is part of Israel for Yasser Arafat. The Muslims want 100% of Israel, with every Jew dead or run into the sea. Then they'll figure out what they want next, but their self-justified demands as a 1000 year aggrieved culture, will never end.

Mr. Wanniski's concern is not that the U.S. may go to war against an Arab country, but that it may in any way benefit those greedy Jews who "believe they deserve ALL the Holy Land".

I respect the freedom of each individual to express their opinion, and I appreciate serious arguments. But arguments such as these are more dangerous than Saddam Hussein or al-kada. Bullets kill people, but ideas provide the powder, and hate the ignition.

FRegards.. SFS

All the Muslims want is a state for the Palestinians.

No, Clinton's toy Barak offered that and Arafat laughed.

What the Arabs want is the end of Israel, and war until they get it.

Until then, 'victim of the Jews' is a badge they're happy to wear.

Aside from that, this article makes some good points about the stinger threat.

Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation...

Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.

George Washington's Farewell Address

"He is right, the best solution to this whole problem is to help them set up a state, through free market reforms, rule of law, and incentives to produce."

Notwithstanding his credentials,his is an advocacy of blackmail.In essence,he seems to be saying that if we don't give them whatever it is that they want,then they are going to continue to commit terrorist acts upon us.Thus,if they want the state of Illinois,we should give it to them to prevent their attacks?The land upon which the camps are located was taken by force from those who invaded Israel,and the whole belongs to Israel.Who are we to demand that they give hard won territory to their sworn enemy which will then put that enemy in a much better position than ever to commit further terrorism,which they surely will? "From the river to the sea" is the aim of every so called palestinian.Send the lot of them back to Jordan from whence they came.

If President Bush returns his focus to Israel and the Palestinian issue, away from Baghdad, he will be able to push Ariel Sharon toward a negotiated settlement. As long as this is happening, there would be NO INCENTIVE for any Islamic terrorist to lift a finger against the United States. All the Muslims want is a state for the Palestinians. That goes for Saddam Hussein himself.

All the Muslims want is to destroy Israel (The Little Satan) first, then to destroy the rest of the West, in particular the US (The Great Satan).

I suppose that Hussein invaded Iran and Kuwait because he hates the Israeli "occupation" of the "West Bank" - which is several hundred miles in the other direction. Wanniski is an appeasing idiot, in line with Neville Chamberlain. His philosophy seems to be that if we give our enemies what they want, they'll go away. I hate to break it to him, but this has been tried many times before, never successfully. The world is a nasty place - to keep what you have you sometimes need to fight those who would destroy you. Now is one of those times, since our ability to deter the terrorists and their sponsors was itself destroyed by the inept foreign policies of the last several administrations (though with heavy emphasis on Clinton).

No, he is wrong. There is only one reason why the Palestinians live in tents... and that is because they and their Arab brethren have largely failed to accept Israel among the family of nations. There would be no refugees, no occupation, no tents at all if they had accepted the partition plan in 1948. Now they claim to be fighting to reclaim what amounts to the 1948 partition plan they waged multiple wars to reject, without even bothering to recognize Israel's right to exist in the process. Their position is utter nonsense, has been for 53 years, and I see no reason to acquiesce to their inanity.

There are plenty of reasons to attack Iraq that have nothing to do with Israel.
In fact, if the Gulf War is any indication, Israel will have to give up alot to further the interests of the US.
In 1991, Israel had to allow Syria to be accepted as controling Lebanon. Worse, it had to give up the right of retaliation. This set the precident for all terrorist attacks against Israel in the Oslo period. Israel is attacked and the US prevent Israel from fully acting.
What did Israel get for this? Iraq was no real threat in 1991. Israel got some loan guarantees, which Bush I used to manipulate Israeli elections.
But despite fact, some people like to make claims that Israel is the center to US policy, because it suits their agenda or pro-Arab policies aborad and anti-jewish ones at home.
If you don't think Wannisni is an anti-Semite, guess who was the first Republican to try to mainstream Farakhan?

For crying out loud, the Palestinian people STILL LIVE IN TENTS in refugee camps!!

They still live in tents after 60 years because someone want's it that way, and it isn't the USA, Israel, or even Western Europe.

He is right, the best solution to this whole problem is to help them set up a state, through free market reforms, rule of law, and incentives to produce.

What kind of state? How do you force someone to bring forth democracy. The USA and Israel did this on our own. "Giving" the Palestinians anything will only encourage more mass-murder (Israeli's and US citizens, NOT the Palestinian terrorists - there is a distinction).

To give in to terrorist-murderers, is to support them, is to become one of them. It's the most immoral position I could every imagine, all in the name of "peace".

By the way, I am well aware of Mr. Wanniski's professional background, and I'm well versed in supply-side economics. But "economics" does not explain hate and murder. All peoples and cultures are not motiviated by the free market, and economic gain. Some simply want power, and those they dislike dead. Evil has a face, a name, intent, and must be defeated.

Wrong, it wasn't Arafat that walked away from the bargaining table, it WAS BARAK.

That, of course, is a lie, with or without your web site reference. And as to your reference to us "morons", remember the FR TOS.

I find that those how must use the fallacy of ad homium logic, often have no defendable arguments. Use your mind, sir.

SFS

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