Regards, Ivan
Posted on 02/14/2003 4:25:43 PM PST by MadIvan
Today, thousands of people will converge on London to join in the Stop the War march. Among them may be readers of this newspaper, whose opposition to Anglo-American intervention in Iraq is based on moral objections, or on concern about the possible consequences for this country.
Such scruples deserve respect. Most of the speakers who will set the tone for this march, though, have rather different motives, chief among them hostility to America. Those who are by no means anti-American, but who disapprove of George W. Bush, may find themselves uncomfortable in the company of those who see America as the fount of all evil. It is to such people, who still have open minds, that the following points are addressed.
• One of the marchers' slogans is: "Not In My Name". What do President Bush and Tony Blair propose to do in our name? They intend to protect the world, and themselves, against the threat of chemical, biological and nuclear attack by Saddam Hussein; to liberate the people of Iraq, who have suffered more under Saddam than anybody else; to overthrow the most dangerous of the regimes that sponsor international terrorism; and to uphold the authority of the United Nations by enforcing the disarmament of Iraq. How many of the marchers disagree with these aims?
• Many people ask: "What has it to do with us?" They may feel that this is America's war, not ours. They are wrong. Iraq threatens everyone, Britain as much as America, with its weapons and the terrorists it sponsors. Saddam's successful defiance of the international community has emboldened other "rogue states", such as North Korea, to menace their neighbours. Tony Blair is right to be wary of following Chamberlain's line when Germany annexed the Sudetenland in 1938 - "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing."
• Will today's protesters spare a thought for the victims of September 11? At that time, there was a spontaneous wave of support for America that, in Britain, was almost unanimous - with the exception of some of the leaders of today's march. Allied leaders, including those of France and Germany, pledged solidarity with America in the war against terrorism. Saddam's reaction was to exult in the mass slaughter of Americans. Now that Osama bin Laden has openly aligned himself with Saddam, it is hard to ignore Iraqi support for terrorists, including al-Qa'eda. How many protesters can honestly reply "yes" to the question: would I be marching against war today if the attacks on September 11 had been, not on New York and Washington, but on London?
Regards, Ivan
They don't understand exactly what the Islamists intend.
What they think of the Islamist socialist utopia, is actually beheading, garroting, and kneeling to Allah.
They don't get it ... yet.
The key word here is annexed. Iraq has not annexed anything (lately). In fact- if anything we have annexed Northern Iraq and made a de facto Kurdish state.
Never mind the infuriating nihilism and mindlessness of the anti-war Left. There are sound reasons for not going into Iraq and playing nation builder.
Apparently this person has missed the news about the weekly UK air bombings of Iraq since 1998.
The mission is to knock over Saddam Hussein. Are you disagreeing that he should be eliminated?
Ivan
Come now, you know that the relationships between terror groups and Saddam is very incestuous. Saddam sponors suicide bombers, regardless of motivation, for $25,000 per family.
Ivan
He's a socialist Baathist.
And he's an unrepentant murderer.
Precisely, so let's clean house, and stop shirking the intensity this conflict demands. We are defending our civilisation against these barbarians, and there is no time to be pretending that somehow the struggle can be wished away.
Ivan
Well I'm sorry, you can have the threat gone now, which does have a price, or you can wait, and the price will be much higher later - because Saddam will choose to engage you on his terms later on, rather than face America and Britain on our terms now.
That's the choice. He is simply not going to go away because you wish it. You may as well bend over and grab your ankles if you think otherwise.
Ivan
There is a difference. The Soviets did not believe they would go to heaven if they set off suicide bombs in shopping malls. The Islamists do. Treating the Islamists as a rational enemy is your first mistake.
Your second mistake is to believe that there was any such thing as "containment". Nonsense. Proxy wars were fought all over the globe during the Cold War, in places like Angola and Afghanistan.
Finally, just by "leaving the Islamists alone", you will not get them to leave you alone. These people will regard that as a sign of weakness. Second, they hate what America represents as it is a counterpoint to all they believe in. There is no way to simply "avoid" the terrorism. It is just like with that other rabid madman Hitler, evil has to be hunted down where it lives and thoroughly destroyed.
I'm sorry you don't have the stomach for this, but that's the truth. You can either deal with it or not, but it remains the truth.
Ivan
Sure, there are sound reasons that recall the wise peace policy of the Framers.
However, that is not where we are. We are met with people who wish to either kill us all or convert us to Islam by the sword. The fact that these people are few in number does not alter the fact that most Arab muslims are rooting him on, however silently.
AQ operates in a reasonably friendly environment. I hardly believe that most of the local regimes and their gendarmeries have really put the heat on AQ. One of AQ's quartermasters has been the government of Iraq, which sees Al Qaeda as one means of running the Americans out of the Middle East.
The two organizations, Iraq and Al Qaeda, have a confluence of interests that temporarily trump their conflicting aims. Taking down Saddam will help us in the long run, especially as Iraq is rebuilt in to something to contrast with the present kleptocracies that run the area.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
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