Monday, March 17, 2003

[Colin Glassey] On the Benefits of Trying the U.N. Route I'm sickened by the foolishness and lack of seriousness in the U.N. It is clear to me that it is no better than the League of Nations regarding the big issues of war and international order. France and Germany are especially blameworthy but I am not impressed by the performance of our nominal allies Mexico and Chile in the Security Council. However, Steven Den Beste has a very insightful essay on the advantages we have gained from following the U.N. route. He lists three major advantages: The Bush administration gained a vote from Congress that authorized war without the requirement of an additional U.N. resolution. Den Beste argues that this was much less likely to occur if the Bush administration had said from the start "screw the U.N.". I agree, the correct Congressional legislation which passed would have been less likely. Because we went down the U.N. path (and did not succeed), during the time that we built up our forces in Kuwait, Saddam did not attack our forces. Den Beste thinks this is an obvious strategy but I disagree. Attacking the U.S. forces in Kuwait would have ended all debate instantly. We would have taken more losses but our counter attack on Iraq would have been unrelenting. The debate flushed out the weasels. This is a huge issue and I agree with Den Beste that this is crucial over the long term. We can now clearly see how far France is from being an ally of the United States. I think it is clear to many people in Europe how much France had taken upon itself the role as the unelected leader of Europe. I fervently hope that the French fail in their efforts to become the ruler of the United Europe. I hope that the behavior of the French will persuade other nations to limit the power of France in the future. Other weasels we have found are the Germans under Schroder and the Turks under the new "Justice and Development Party". How these two governments can turn their backs on 50 years of alliance with the United States is beyond me. I think our bases in Germany should close permanantly. I also think our bases in Turkey should close for good. As far as I'm concerned, these countries are no longer the allies the United States. People used to say that a weakness in the U.S. form of government was our foreign policy changed with every new administration. Well, we have been allies and supporters of the German and Turkish state ever since 1950. 50 long years and 11 different presidents. Yet the parliments of both these countries were willing to throw off that alliance with little apparent consideration of the consequences, with no thought as to the cost/benefit analysis. This is democracy in action as the opinion polls show the governments are very much in line with popular feeling in both countries. Sometimes leadership invovles doing the right thing even when it is unpopular. 11:40:45 PM     [Colin Glassey] War with Iraq War with Iraq is now unavoidable. There is no chance that Saddam will just pack his bags and head out of town, giving up his life of power and his ability to order the torture or death of anyone who looks at him funny. I'm glad. I'm glad that the weasels didn't manage to derail this plan. I hope France reaps the whirlwind from their opposition to us. I'm glad that the Iraqi people will finally be rid of one of the worst dictators still living (though not for much longer). I'm glad that our President has stood firm and not buckeled under the vicious attacks by the scared, the pacificst, and the just plain stupid. Two years ago I voted for Al Gore for president. Knowing what I know now, I would not have cast that vote. Bush has exceeded my expectations, vastly exceeded them. Right now, as a registered democrat, I don't see any cantidate who can get my vote in the next election, other than President Bush. I say this knowing that he is profoundly wrong and mistaken on a wide range of issues such as: Taxation, Abortion, Energy Policy, and, even Global Warming. But all those issues don't match up to one issue: the role of the United States in dealing with terrorist nations who seek nuclear weapons. Attacking and deposing Saddam is the right thing to do and I'm reasonably certain that Al Gore would never have mustered the sheer guts to do this in the face of French, German, Russian, and Chinese opposition. The right man won the election of 2000. I was wrong. Like Truman, this president is doing the hard thing, but the right thing at the right time. 6:11:26 PM

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