It’s been a bad week for the Jane Fonda wing of the Democratic
Party. The greatest loser is New York Times executive
editor Howell Raines, who has moved heaven, earth, and his
editorial page to make the Times the loudest media voice
opposing President Bush’s policy to rid the world of Saddam
Hussein. When Saddam’s latest “Dear Kofi” letter arrived at the
U.N., and said that Iraq would accept the return of U.N. weapons
inspectors unconditionally, it appeared that the NYT
really was at the head of a resurgent anti-war pack. But it’s all
been down hill from there.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan — who history will remember
as the man who sold out the U.N. weapons inspectors in 1998 —
promptly praised Iraqi cooperation. Annan told Hans Blix, new head
U.N. weapons inspector, to take his time arranging to restart the
inspections at some time and place convenient to Iraqi foreign
minister Tariq Aziz. Dubya reacted promptly, saying that it was
just another Iraqi ploy to buy time, and sure enough, the Iraqis
proved him right in only about 48 hours. Saddam let it be known
that he still won’t let the inspectors into his many “presidential
palaces” where — according to intelligence sources — most of the
weapons of mass destruction are researched, produced and stored.
The U.N. — on the threshold of irrelevance — will go along with
this charade if we let it. Mr. Annan, along with Russia, China and
France who were complicit in his sellout of the inspectors, seems
determined to let Saddam off the hook again.
Just as the Howell Raines Brigade was falling back from one
defeat, President Bush’s team hit ‘em again with the new “National
Security Strategy of the United States.” The policy paper tosses
bunches of carrots and sticks at our allies and enemies, putting
together much of what the President has been saying since 9-11-01.
It says preemptive action against Saddam and his ilk is necessary
because deterrence doesn’t work, and because we cannot allow
ourselves to be struck with nuclear, chemical or biological
weapons. Our right to self-defense, it says, includes the right to
preempt such attacks.
Saddened that they weren’t the first to sound retreat, the Aunt
Pittypats of the Washington Post immediately fell into a
terrible case of the vapors upon reading the National Security
Strategy. The Post — with visions of Visigoths dancing in
its head — said that Mr. Bush’s strategy “courts unseen dangers,”
and smacked of “vigilante justice” in defiance of world progress
toward “common understandings” about the use of force. Of course it
does nothing of the sort, but does point out the consequences of
some inconvenient facts. Such as the historic value and current
uselessness of NATO, brought about by the failure of the NATO
nations to invest (at the adult level) in their own defense, and by
the European Union which still has delusions of military
relevance.
Also last Friday, the President sent Congress a draft war
resolution on Iraq, which would authorize the president to use all
appropriate means to enforce the 1991 U.N. resolutions — including
force — to end the threat posed by Iraq and to stabilize the
Middle East. It was only a matter of time before the Jane Fonda
Democrats found a chance to voice their opposition, and they did on
Sunday’s talk shows. Among others, Sen. Carl Levin managed to get
it wrong in a small way, insisting that the draft resolution was
too broad and amounted to a blank check to strike any country in
the Middle East. (Yeah, so?) But it took Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to
get it comprehensively wrong.
Mr. Biden warned that if we attack Iraq, Saddam would do what he
did in 1991, firing missiles at Israel, triggering an Israeli
counterattack and igniting the region in an Arab-Israeli war. Mr.
Biden, never one to get things wrong in a small way, opined that if
Israel counterattacked none of our regional allies, even Turkey,
would support us and that we would probably find every American
embassy in the region burned to the ground in short order. Mr.
Biden really should stay awake through all those Defense Department
briefings he gets.
If he had, he’d know a few things that make his Sunday remarks
seem awfully silly. First, Saddam obviously does plan to use his
Scud-B missiles to throw chem/bio weapons at Israel if he gets a
chance because he believes the other Arab nations will ride to his
rescue. Which is why any version of our war plan will close what is
known as the “Scud Box” in the first ten minutes of the war. The
Scud Box — a small area in western Iraq — is the only place from
which Saddam can launch the Scuds in relative safety. Unless Tommy
Franks manages to throw tactical surprise away entirely by massing
unneeded ground forces, we’ll close the Scud Box in the first few
minutes of the campaign, and destroy all fifteen or so Scud
launchers with special operations troops supporting stealth
aircraft strikes. If it moves in the Scud Box, it dies. No brag,
just fact. The other reason to think the Scuds won’t reach their
targets is that we have already told the Iraqi generals that if
they launch chemical or biological weapons at us or the Israelis,
those few of them who are taken alive will be tried as war
criminals.
Second, Ariel Sharon won’t stand by if our guys fail to get all
the missiles and one or more get through. If chem/bio weapons hit
Israel, they will respond in the exact same way we have said we
would if a weapon of mass destruction hit the U.S. They will launch
a nuclear strike. Our intelligence people say that the Israelis
have an operational blueprint for just that situation. It’s
important that we moot the need for such a strike, but whether we
do or not, the Arab nations will not rush to make it an
Arab-Israeli war for two simple reasons. First, none of them wants
to die for Saddam. The Arab armies know they’re no match for
Israel, far less for Israel fighting alongside Uncle Sam. If we and
the Israelis are both taking the battle to Iraq, Saddam won’t last
three days. And none of the others want to share his fate. As for
our allies in the region, Turkey and Jordan will stay with us, and
who cares about the others? Only Carl Levin, Joe Biden and the rest
of those who are still fonda Jane. Saddam delendus
est.
