MIDEAST VICTORY
Ken [NY)
By RALPH PETERS
NY Post
July 14, 2003 -- LOOKING for a little peace and quiet this summer?
Check out the notorious "Arab Street."
Remember how, on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom, every strategic
genius with a word processor or a microphone warned us that our
efforts to depose Saddam would lead to an eruption of violent rage in
Arab cities that would forever destroy American influence, peace and
the corporate future of Coca-Cola?
Didn't happen. On the contrary, our intervention in Iraq has been a
regional triumph. The media's ambulance-chasing focus on micro events
in Iraq obscures the stunning progress we have made at the macro
level.
During the war, unseasoned journalists reported every minor exchange
of fire as if it were the Little Big Horn, Part Two. Now, the
obsession of reporters with every sprained ankle in our occupation
force ignores the tremendous good we have done, the strategic
advantages we have gained - and the potential, at last, for a measure
of meaningful progress in the world's most politically, culturally and
morally backward region.
If we took the criteria for instant failure that the media and our
most self-interested politicians apply to Iraq and applied them here
at home, the U.S. government would be obliged to evacuate California
and abandon Mississippi, since two shooting incidents in those states
last week killed more Americans than did the low-level violence in
Iraq.
Clearly, our 150-year-old annexation of California has been a failure
- likewise, the reintegration of Mississippi in the years since our
Civil War. Let's just pack up and go home.
Seriously, stand back from the silliness of the Deanie-weenies and
consider the remarkable regional developments since Uncle Sam flipped
off the Euro-trash and did what needed doing in Iraq:
* First, the vast majority of Iraqis are far better off than they were
under Saddam - and they know it. Our remaining problems are with a
cluster of sore losers who don't have permission to torture their
neighbors anymore.
* Second, that "dangerous" Arab street is suddenly on its best
behavior. Since the fall of Baghdad, the number of anti-American
demonstrations in the Middle East has also fallen - to its lowest
level in decades. Guess Saddam wasn't such a hero, after all.
* Third, there's genuine movement toward a better life for the
Israelis and Palestinians - not a final peace, but a reduction in
violence, improved economic opportunity and meaningful dialog. In our
imperfect world, that's real progress. And it would not have happened
if G.I. Joe's presence nearby had not jump-started the process.
* Fourth, bad-boy Syria has been scrambling to prove it's an upright
citizen of the world community, committed to peace, hostile to terror,
and unreceptive to Brother Saddam & Co.'s stragglers.
Doubtless, Syria's still got dirty fingers in some nasty pies - you
can't jettison a full generation of support for terrorism overnight -
but President Bashar Assad has waking nightmares about G.I.s cruising
the boulevards of Damascus in M-1 tanks.
* Fifth, Iran, while hoping to influence the hearts and minds of
Shiites in the south of Iraq, is going about things far more
cautiously than usual.
With young Iranians encouraged by regime changes in Kabul and Baghdad,
and the corrupt, old mullahs doing double-takes at the American troops
positioned to their east and west, Teheran is suddenly more open to
the possibility of inspections of its nuclear facilities - while the
United Nations (remember those guys?) has now gotten religion about
weapons of mass destruction.
Convinced that Uncle Sam is serious about keeping nukes, bugs and gas
out of the hands of rogue regimes, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the
UN's International Atomic Energy Commission, just popped over to Iran
to read the mullahs their rights.
* Sixth, the Saudis are suddenly far more cooperative in the War on
Terror and anxious to assure us that they're our best buds in the
whole, wide world. Yeah, tell that to the people of New York City,
after your pervert princes funded the terrorists who struck the World
Trade Center towers. It's beginning to dawn on Saudi Arabia's
bloodstained bigots that they need the support of the U.S., not the
other way around. No more veils for our female Air Force officers,
Bandar baby. We're pulling up stakes and heading for cold-beer
country.
* Seventh, if Turkey doesn't come to its senses and begin behaving
responsibly, we'll evacuate those airbases - Turkey's last card in the
game of strategic poker - and ask the people of formerly Iraqi
Kurdistan if they'd accept a U.S. military presence, U.S. protection
and all the jobs and economic benefits that go with our bases. By the
way, once the mullahs are gone, bases in Free Iran just may be an
option, as well.
* Eighth, contrary to the whining of Demoralized Dems for Defeat in
'04, Operation Iraqi Freedom did push global terrorism deeper onto the
defensive. President Bush's strategic lariat has been working wonders.
Just keep on roundin' 'em up, then brand 'em and put 'em in the Gitmo
corral.
* Ninth, even though our own defeatists have assured them that our
efforts in Iraq are bound to fail, the Euro-trash are fully cognizant
of the failure of their policies to protect Saddam, their oil
contracts and their favorite Jew-killers.
The love affair between Schroeder and Chirac isn't looking especially
orgasmic these days. And Frere Jacques is regretting all those threats
he made against the dictator-hating states of Eastern Europe, who'll
soon have votes on E.U. policy.
Happy Bastille Day, Jackie-boy.
* Tenth, the world is a safer place, and the threat from Iraqi WMD
programs has been vanquished. Whether active, inactive or somewhere in
between, the threat was real and the only valid question concerns its
immediacy.
Dr. Ralph's independent research indicates that there are two kinds of
human beings who never can be reformed: child molesters and dictators
who have acquired a taste for WMD use. Even if he's still alive,
Saddam can't even collect his pension. Do the critics of our every
move in post-Saddam Iraq really want him back?
Once again, G.I. Joe went off to foreign shores and made the world a
better, safer place. It's time to recognize the dimensions of our
accomplishment and stop declaring failure in the face of triumph.
Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of "Beyond
Terror: Strategy in a Changing World."
Ken (NY)
Chairman,
Department Of Redundancy Department
____________________________________
email:
http://www.geocities.com/bluesguy68/email.htm
"[Saddam Hussein]cannot be permitted to go
unobserved and unimpeded toward his horrific
objective of amassing a stockpile of weapons
of mass destruction..."
-Senator John Kerry, D-Mass 1997
Q: What the hardest thing about rollerblading?
A: Telling your parents you’re gay.
mike
"Ken [NY)" wrote:
> Didn't happen. On the contrary, our intervention in Iraq has been a
> regional triumph.
Tell that to mothers who pick up thier dead sons at Dover AFB.
They died for oil and greed and BU$H's LIES.
--
Saddam has hundreds of Statues of Massive Construction.
We have found them.
-G.W. Bush
(often misquoted by the liberal news)
http://minime.de/bush/
http://www.911pi.com/
http://www.warprofiteers.com/
http://www.mindprod.com/bush911.html
http://www.rise4news.net/Saddam-CIA.html