It’s no wonder that Saddam Hussein says he sleeps soundly these
days. When the French and the Germans said that they’d block any
further U.N. action against him, they were sending the message that
they’ll stop us from going downtown in Baghdad. But for us, and our
real allies, going to war without France is like going deer hunting
without an accordion. There’s a lot of useless, noisy baggage that
we can leave behind.
Last week, the world’s attention was focused on the girly boys
of Old Europe and their complaints that we are too unrefined and
aggressive. One apologetic Dutch reporter asked me why America
isn’t more concerned about European opinion. He explained that the
French and Germans were very upset about our lack of manners and
thought Dubya was a cowboy. I told him that any nation that made
decisions on war and peace based on another nation’s manners wasn’t
being governed by grownups.
Though there’s obviously a testosterone shortage in Paris and
Berlin, there sure isn’t one in places such as London, Canberra,
Istanbul, Tel Aviv and Kuwait City, capitals of the Coalition of
the Willing. (If only Dubya had picked a name with a better acronym
than “COW”). There’s probably a beer surplus in whatever town the
Australian Special Air Service calls home, because they — again —
are on the way to war. An Australian reporter I spoke with asked me
if Americans appreciated his country’s contributions to the war
against terror. I told him we did very much, but too few knew about
it. It’s time to ignore the pink peacocks of Old Europe and praise
the stud bulls who are members of the COW and are joining us to end
the menace posed by Saddam’s WMD.
You don’t win a Bronze Star by sitting behind a desk. And you
hardly ever see an American combat medal such as that being given
to anyone but an American. Major Steve Jobson, an Aussie Black Hawk
helo driver, was awarded a Bronze Star for service with the 82nd
Airborne in Afghanistan. I suspect he was driving spec ops troops
into and out of places such as Tora Bora, where some of the
heaviest fighting took place. And the Aussies are stepping up to
the plate again, to take a full swing at Saddam. Australia is in
the war on terror for the long haul. HMAS Kinimbla sailed
recently for the Middle East with men and weapons aboard. She, and
other Aussie ships and aircraft, will deliver units of the
Australian SAS — and many other units of ground, air and naval
forces — to fight with us from day one. (The Aussie SAS is just as
good as the Brit SAS, which is to say damned good. They just drink
more, which is quite an accomplishment in itself.)
The Aussies want a free trade agreement with us. I favor it
because both countries will benefit from increased trade, and I
will save a bundle when the price of Foster’s Special Bitter drops.
Special Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has told Congress that
the Bush Administration wanted to go ahead with such an agreement.
We should, as soon as we can.
Not all the good news comes from Canberra. By last Thanksgiving,
nearly all the Brit SAS people and other spec ops guys weren’t at
home. My guess is that they were in Iraq with our guys, mapping out
Scud locations and other prime targets. In Afghanistan, Brit
special forces were there in considerable numbers, as were their
air and naval forces. In one of the early fights in the caves, a
senior SAS sergeant performed so heroically he was recommended for
a Victoria’s Cross, the Brit equivalent of our Congressional Medal
of Honor. As par for the SAS course, not a word more has leaked
out. I only wish we could have honored that man publicly as we did
Major Jobson.
The Brits carried much of the in-flight refueling burden in the
Afghan campaign. It got to the point that our Navy and Marine
pilots steered off USAF tankers if the Brits were around because
the Brit refueling equipment linked more easily to that used by our
carrier aircraft. A very large slice of British forces, including
the tankers, will take part in the Iraq campaign. The Brits will
make the largest commitment of men and equipment next to ours. They
are invaluable.
Turkey, our most under-appreciated ally, is also our only ally
in the Muslim world that can fight. They won’t send troops as they
did in the Korean War and many times since. They are among the
world’s toughest fighters. Turkey will let use its bases to attack
Iraq. That is enough, for now. Kuwait, which has no significant
military, will let us use bases there, and may help pay for the
war.
In Gulf War 1, the Israelis were told to stay home as part of
the price of keeping the Saudis’ cooperation. Loud Saudi objections
caused us to not go all the way to Baghdad. This time we should
welcome the Israelis aboard, and not just because we’re going to
finish the job. The Israelis will likely suffer the most, even
before we attack Iraq. Saddam’s Scud-mounted chemical and
biological weapons may be fired at Israeli cities before we attack.
As the conflict grows closer, Hezbollah terrorists will try to
disrupt our plans by firing hundreds of rockets into northern
Israel to start the war there, and divert us from Iraq. The
Israelis will counter-attack, and drive Hezbollah out of
Syrian-controlled Lebanon. They would be right to take that attack
all the way to Damascus. The Assad government owns and operates
Hezbollah, and should go down in flames with its terrorists.
America is too forgiving of enemies and faithless “allies.” We
should do better by forging closer ties to the nations that are
willing to fight terror, and divorcing ourselves from those that
won’t. If Saddam can be convinced that we won’t stop before he is
dead or deposed, he might take the money and run. The longer the
French and Germans puff themselves up, the longer Saddam will
believe he can survive. Very soon, it will be too late for him, and
for the Americans who will lose their lives liberating Iraq. If
they continue to refuse support after the action begins, France and
Germany will be encouraging Saddam to continue to fight past the
point when his forces would have surrendered. America has paid the
butcher’s bill twice for France and Germany. If they make the bill
larger this time, we should never forget or forgive. Saddam
delendus est.
