The Thanksgiving Day terrorist attacks in Kenya tell us a lot
about how both sides are fighting this war. Now that Western
nations have made it harder to hijack airliners, the terrorists
will use shoulder-fired missiles to shoot them down, as they have
other aircraft in Chechnya and Africa. As I pointed out
two weeks ago this threat is one of the most serious we face,
and one we could — but aren’t — defending against. Determination
and decisiveness characterize our enemies’ actions but not, often
enough, our own.
Just before the attacks, Palestinian “legislator” Nahed Alrayis
wrote (in the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper) that
U.S. policy toward the Arab and Islamic world leaves its peoples so
hopeless that they will have no choice but to resort to suicide
attacks against us. Just after the attacks, London’s radical
mullahs were preaching that Muslims in Britain were obligated by
their religion to go to Iraq and fight against any American attack.
There is absolutely no flexibility in the dogma of radical
Islamists. Their rhetoric serves only to reaffirm their rejection
of coexistence with us. The Palestinians and the London mullahs
have nothing at stake in Iraq except their dogma. So they insist
falsely — just as Saddam does — that ours is not a war against
terror, but against Islam. That feeds their followers’ dedication
to the conflict. We cannot allow it to lessen ours. We can leave
that to others, such as the Democratic Party and the United
Nations.
Democratic presidential aspirant Sen. John Kerry wants to
handcuff our foreign policy to the U.N. just as Lil’ Billy did and
Algore would. Last Sunday, Kerry said that he opposes an invasion
of Iraq whose purpose is “regime change without regard to the
legitimacy of the inspection process or the legitimacy of the
United Nations process itself.” Mr. Kerry — a decorated combat
veteran — apparently learned the wrong lessons of Vietnam.
Kerry, like many other opponents of the coming Iraq campaign,
believes that America should not act unilaterally. Even more
wrongheadedly, he denies that Iraq poses any threat to us, saying
America should go to war when it needs to, not when it wants to.
Rather than have the United States deal decisively with terrorists
and the nations that sponsor them, Kerry would have us sit idly by
and fail to act without U.N. permission. Placing that restriction
on U.S. action will be fatal to our ability to defeat terror, and
may well be fatal to our nation. Either we act decisively, or we
lose.
Occasions for decision arise often, and one of them will be next
week. Under U.N resolution 1441, Saddam must disclose all details
and locations of his weapons of mass destruction on Sunday,
December 8. Saddam will either deny that he has any at all, or make
a token disclosure that will still leave concealed everything of
real value.
U.N. Chief Inspector Blix has his teams searching abandoned
Iraqi airfields and factories and finding, well, empty airfields
and factories. Not wanting to offend, Mr. Blix won’t even attempt
to search any of Saddam’s “presidential sites” (where the WMD
really are) before the December 8 disclosure deadline. Inspectors
working under Blix’s inspection plan have as much chance of finding
WMD as they do of finding Jimmy Hoffa. Maybe less. The many
weaknesses of Blix’s operations are the result of the U.N.’s
inability to act decisively. Mr. Kerry may be satisfied with this
approach. It would be better for him to contrast it with how the
Israelis and Russians respond when they are attacked.
Ever since his latest “Intifada” began, Yasir Arafat has tried
and failed to draw other Islamic terrorists and nations directly
into the Palestinians’ campaign against Israel. Since it dealt with
the perpetrators of the 1972 Munich massacre, Israel’s war against
terrorism has been local. It’s unlikely that Arafat, no longer a
significant figure, conspired in the Kenya attacks. But his desired
result has been reached. Those attacks, probably the work of
al-Qaeda or its Somali subsidiary, Al-Ittihaad al Islamiya, have
brought Israel into the global war on terror. But the terrorists
may have miscalculated because the Israelis, and the Russians, act
decisively.
After the Thanksgiving Day attacks, Ariel Sharon reportedly told
Meir Dagan, head of the Mossad, to make it his priority to find and
kill the people responsible. Publicly Sharon said, “Our long arm
will get the attackers.” At about the same time, and less publicly,
Bad Vlad Putin put out a contract on Shamil Basayev, the Chechen
Islamic terrorist who claimed responsibility for the Moscow theater
siege. Putin ordered the Russian FSB (the old KGB with a
smiley-face painted on its logo) supported by Russian special
forces into Chechnya to whack Basayev. When the Gipper sent the
F-111s to visit Muammar Qaddafi after the Berlin nightclub bombing
that killed Americans, the raid almost succeeded, and even in
missing Qaddafi sent an unmistakably decisive message. In Iraq, and
elsewhere, we need to act as decisively now as Mr. Reagan did
then.
The December 8 “disclosure” by Saddam will result in calls for
more inspections, more debates and more U.N. resolutions. Dubya has
put us on a U.N. path that leads nowhere, and he must steer us off
it very soon. After December 8, Mr. Bush will be faced with the
unenviable task of again asking the U.N. to act to declare Saddam
in material breach of the resolutions. The Russians, the Chinese
and — to be sure — the French will do everything they can to
thwart the material breach declaration. Mr. Bush will have to act
decisively, and tell the U.N. that if it fails to act by
mid-January we will act alone. No debate beyond that time, no
failure to act decisively can be allowed. Mr. Blix will be sure to
demand more time. But his time is now, not later. If December 8
comes and goes without the “palaces” being searched, it will be as
much Blix’s fault as Saddam’s.
Islamic terrorists are dedicated to killing Americans anywhere
they can, with whatever weapons they can obtain. We cannot defeat
them by surrendering our decisions to the U.N. To defeat this
enemy, we can show no greater hesitation to act than he, and can be
no less determined. We must act decisively whenever the opportunity
arises. For starters, Saddam delendus est.
