Remaining true to history

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | March 29, 2003 | THOMAS ROESER

[Chi-townChief]

All arguments against the war--including mine--are moot now. The decision has been made, and our job is not to nurse misgivings but to win in Iraq.

Compared to what occurred 62 years ago, the anti-war movement in the United States is scanty and timorous. In 1941, it was of enormous influence. The ''America First'' movement was based in this city, and its rallies featured the hero Charles Lindbergh and Sears Roebuck tycoon retired Gen. Robert Wood, among others. The movement extended throughout the nation and included young John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts. But Dec. 7 brought an end to all that. The issue became a ''time for unity.'' As indeed it should be today, as our troops are engaged in the struggle in Iraq. Only one point remains unsettled. But I'll get to that in a moment.

America has always been a generous nation with its young treasure--too generous, perhaps, but we have tied an idealistic spirit to enlightened self-interest. Other nations went to war abroad for abject material ends. Not us. Our willingness to do battle in World War I was ''to make the world safe for democracy.''

We did not covet any foreign territory; indeed the president who led us into the war, Woodrow Wilson, was a visionary who wished only to build a league of nations that he hoped would keep the peace.

He was wrong to believe that other nations shared his principles; wrong, too, to suppose that this nation would buy his dream. But we went to war in 1917, and while it didn't solve much, the price we paid had a brave and noble earnestness to it. Our men returned home, and we vowed never again to succumb to a summons to war by eloquence and disarming words. We didn't, either. Franklin Roosevelt couldn't sell us: Pearl Harbor did.

We fought the second World War not for soaring fantasies but to punish Japan, which struck us treacherously and treated our captives with animalistic depravity. Defeating racist Germany, which declared war on us first, by the way, turned out to be a bonanza for the world because it was developing a weapon that could have led to mass extinction. We won that war and took no indemnities or lands. Then we discovered that the Soviet Union, with whom we were allied, intended to conquer for communism--either by seduction or arms. Again we went forth, applying the policy of containment in Europe, laced with beneficence in the Marshall Plan. Our goal was not to take lands but to encourage peoples to be free. Captive nations rallied to our ideals, while in Korea we refused to allow even a Chinese invasion with seeming irresistible numbers to conquer.

Vietnam was a loss and convinced some that we were in danger of overextension, a question that is still unanswered. But now, as it appears that only America can save the world from terrorism, we are ready to go forward. I would hope that we would forsake what is ridiculously called the United Nations. It is merely an international Rotary Club, and to spend time courting its members is to see our labor derided with ingratitude. If we indeed must save the world from terrorism, let us do so without pleading for support from this vast, gaseous canyon where most diplomats are disgusting demagogues or shuffling supplicants.

One job remains uncompleted now that we are resolved to win this war. It involves the senior senator from South Dakota, Tom Daschle, who has said that the death of a single soldier would be the fault of President George W. Bush.

Daschle should resign as Senate minority leader. No one should lead a party who is so insensitive to the demands of national unity. Whether or not Daschle steps down or his party removes him, any additional words from him should be regarded as irrelevant. What is important now is that we triumph and show the world that Iraq's chamber of horrors will not stand.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Good article. Thanks.

[exDemMom]

The first sentence made me fear that this would be [yet another] anti-war screed. But as I read on, I was pleasantly surprised.