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REMEMBER THE CASSANDRAS (Mona Charen rips Daschle and Dems on Iraq)
Townhall.com ^ | September 13th, 2002 | Mona Charen

Posted on 09/13/2002 12:04:35 AM PDT by Sabertooth

Mona Charen (archive)
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September 13, 2002

Remember the Cassandras

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., was asked, following President Bush's address to the United Nations, whether he thought Bush had made the case for pre-emptive action against Iraq. Daschle allowed that each time the president addresses the matter, he strengthens the case. Still, Daschle insisted, there remain unanswered questions. These are: 1) what would be the response of the "international community" and 2) how would the war against Iraq affect the war against terrorism?

Democrats worry a lot about the "international community." They believe that the views of world leaders, elected and unelected, carry more moral weight than those of Americans. And their tendency is to seek not just the advice of "allies" but their permission for American action. Who can forget the spectacle of Secretary of State Warren Christopher scurrying from one European capital to another "consulting" about Bosnia and being rebuffed as often as not? Or the memory of the same fellow cooling his heels outside Syrian dictator Assad's office, hoping for an interview.

What Democrats almost never seem to grasp is that steadfast American leadership can affect world opinion. Just one recent example: After the latest round of Palestinian terror and Israeli response, rumors circulated that President Bush might call for the replacement of Arafat. Any number of voices were raised in opposition, arguing that Arafat was the legitimate leader or at least the devil we know, and it was no business of the United States to tell others whom to choose. Bush did it anyway. And within a few weeks, European foreign ministers and even some Arab leaders were announcing that Arafat's day had passed.

Daschle's second objection has been voiced by Brent Scowcroft and other war-wary former officials. But, as the president carefully spelled out, far from distracting us from the war on terror, dealing with Iraq is an urgent and essential part of the war on terror. With Iraqi cooperation, the worldwide terror network can inflict catastrophic damage on us. Mere retaliation is an empty threat. As Vice President Cheney put it, "Who launched the anthrax attacks?" We don't know, and that's the point. Deterrence made sense against an enemy in possession of thousands of ICBMs. It does not make sense against an ally of terrorists cooking up vats of poison in the desert.

History is replete with examples of stupid prewar boasts: North and South in the U.S. civil war predicted rapid victory. Most of the nations who fought World War I imagined the war would be over in a few weeks. But it is also possible to be overly pessimistic about what war can achieve.

Remember the Cassandras who predicted disaster before the Gulf War? "We stand on the brink of catastrophe," said Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. "An effort to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait would, according to estimates, cost the lives of 20,000 American soldiers," reported Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I. "If war comes, Iraq's fondest hope is that the United States will commit substantial ground forces to frontal assaults, thus giving Iraq a chance to inflict heavy casualties," cautioned Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.

Others were certain that by attacking Iraq we'd ignite a fuse that would cause the entire Arab world to take up arms against us. Evans and Novak wrote, "One very high official told us that every Arab head of state except Saudi King Fahd (and the tiny Gulf states) ... agrees that that if a single Iraqi soldier is killed by an American, it would be taken as 'an aggressive act against us.'"

In the event, members of the vaunted Republican Guard were surrendering to CNN crews, and the war was a walkover. But even if the next war is not, it is still worth fighting. Churchill famously said that the Second World War was the "avoidable war." If resolute action had been taken against Hitler earlier, millions of lives would have been spared. Churchill's words are particularly apposite now:

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed. If you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

Contact Mona Charen | Read her biography

©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS:


1 posted on 09/13/2002 12:04:35 AM PDT by Sabertooth
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To: CheneyChick; vikingchick; Victoria Delsoul; WIMom; one_particular_harbour; kmiller1k; Snow Bunny; ..
((((((growl)))))



2 posted on 09/13/2002 12:05:27 AM PDT by Sabertooth
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To: Sabertooth
Ms. Charen is a gem.
3 posted on 09/13/2002 12:13:22 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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To: Sabertooth
Mona Charen always writes the truth well. Does anyone know the status of her son that was injured in an accident in May?
4 posted on 09/13/2002 12:39:21 AM PDT by windchime
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To: Sabertooth
The Lady is silver-penned adn utterly correct.

As usual.

5 posted on 09/13/2002 12:58:34 AM PDT by Thumper1960
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To: Sabertooth
Excellent article Saber! Thanks.

ChurchillSpeechFinestHour

6 posted on 09/13/2002 5:33:39 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: Sabertooth
Not too long ago Daschle was in favor of a war with Iraq i believe. Now he is against it. Lieberman is I believe for it, but how much time are the networks giving him on this?
7 posted on 09/13/2002 6:57:11 AM PDT by Freedom of Speech Wins
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To: windchime; nina0113
Does anyone know the status of her son that was injured in an accident in May?

My wife got an e-mail about that from Mona, in response to a sympathy note she had sent. I can't recall the boy's condition; maybe my wife does.

8 posted on 09/13/2002 7:10:25 AM PDT by Steve0113
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To: Steve0113
Thanks for your response. I hope your wife does know. The account of her child's injury was heartbreaking and we've wondered about his progress.
9 posted on 09/13/2002 7:54:29 AM PDT by windchime
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To: Sabertooth
In the event, members of the vaunted Republican Guard were surrendering to CNN crews, and the war was a walkover.

Well, here is the crux of the problem. The Liberals think that all we need to do is send a few CNN reporters over and SoDamnInsane will surrender to them.

10 posted on 09/13/2002 8:26:14 AM PDT by Samwise
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To: Sabertooth
There is only one point to dashole's thought process, stave off the President's popularity as long as possible. When we go to war, the popularity of President Bush will skyrocket. To have that happen before the November elections would be catastrophic to the liberals. Of course I doubt we will "go to war" before November but the resolve to do so will have a similar effect and the demo-rats cannot afford that. The motives for all the stalling is as basic as that, it is not difficult, there is but one agenda, to retain as much power as possible and pick up any additional power along the way. All of which is looking worse with each passing day.
11 posted on 09/13/2002 8:31:22 AM PDT by elephantlips
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To: Sabertooth
BTTT
12 posted on 09/13/2002 9:02:57 AM PDT by Gritty
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To: Sabertooth
If the effectiveness of a writer is judged by the cries of outrage and pain elicited in the opposition by their writing, then Mona Charen is the most effective conservative writer currently appearing regularly in the St. Louis Post Dispatch (Ann Coulter is of course the overall champion, but unfortunately is not regularly seen in our paper). Every column by Mona is predictably followed by howls of rage from one or more liberals that are dutifuly printed in the SLPD letters-to-editor section.
13 posted on 09/13/2002 9:14:08 AM PDT by FairWitness
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To: windchime
She did send me an e-mail - said he was almost back to normal after only a couple of weeks, when they had been expecting months of therapy. She credited everyone's prayers.
14 posted on 09/13/2002 9:52:12 AM PDT by nina0113
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To: Gritty
Mona
Moaner

15 posted on 09/13/2002 10:06:18 AM PDT by Consort
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To: nina0113
Thank you, nina0113. I am so thankful for the good news!
16 posted on 09/13/2002 11:16:25 AM PDT by windchime
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To: Jimer
Tom-Tom! What do we do, Tom-Tom?


17 posted on 09/13/2002 12:02:30 PM PDT by rockfish59
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To: Sabertooth
Thanks for the heads up!
18 posted on 09/13/2002 1:52:03 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: Sabertooth
I appreciate your thinking of me, Sabe, but I've already made my yearly mistake of reading Mona Charen. If I published a watered-down version of what I knew on any given subject, a year later, she'd write a column that made me look like a genius. I believe she worked for Reagan; she must have some kind of connections, to be a syndicated columnist, in spite of her lack of style and intelligence.

19 posted on 09/14/2002 1:07:26 PM PDT by mrustow
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