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Ralph
Peters is a regular columnist with the New
York Post. Register here for
access to the Post's Online Edition
Contributors
Ralph Peters - Contributor
Ralph
Peters is a retired Army officer and the author of 19 books,
as well as of hundreds of essays and articles, written
both under his own name and as Owen Parry. He is a frequent columnist
for the New York Post and other publications. [go to Peters Index]
 It's
Worth The Price
What
if the U.S. hadn't invaded Iraq?
[Ralph
Peters] 8/3/04
If we had not invaded Iraq, French banks, French politicians
and French businessmen would be richer. French, German and Russian
arms dealers would be richer. Kofi Anan's son would be richer.
Numerous high-ranking UN officials would be richer. The European
and Middle-Eastern businessmen who sold the Iraqi people expired
medicines, rancid cooking oil and spoiled foodstuffs under the
UN Oil-For-Food program would be richer. Uday and Qusay would
be richer (and still alive). And, of course, Saddam would be
richer.
And the French would be complaining about something else...
To be fair, we American
spoilsports (who upset the international gravy-train for all
those self-righteous Europeans and Middle-Eastern
butchers) did make one inexcusable mistake: We didn't go to Baghdad
in 1991, but listened to our Saudi "friends."
Even foregoing my favorite argument that this war was morally
noble (where were all those Hollywood personalities when Saddam
was killing more Muslims than any tyrant since Tamerlane? Has
chubby old Linda Ronstadt ever smelled a mass grave? Did Susan
Sarandon and her wife, Tim Robbins, ever protest the genocide
against the Kurds? Have the Dixie Chicks ever been abducted,
raped and disfigured by a dictator's thugs?)...leaving all that
aside, we have taken the great anti-Western war our enemies began
to their turf, and that is never a mistake.
Making one's enemies suffer is currently an under-valued activity.
Had we not forced our collective enemies to face us in the
Middle East, they could have devoted the resources they're expending
in Iraq to striking us at home. And yes, they'll strike us at
home again, eventually--this is a colossal struggle. But passivity,
appeasement and cowardice only encourage them and make it easier
for them to draw strength. It is never a mistake to strike down
an enemy who has sworn to kill us--as both our Islamic and secular Middle-Eastern enemies hope to do. Saddam Hussein was as much
a part of the problem of the decayed, morally leprous Middle
East as Osama bin Laden is. The War on Terror isn't a minor affair,
but a titanic struggle with a failed civilization that includes
both vicious mullahs and cynical murderers--both those who drink
the poison of hate from the fouled springs of their religion
and those who guzzle scotch behind closed doors (not infrequently
one and the same).
If we had not deposed Saddam Hussein's regime, nothing would
have changed in the Middle East. And change, so long delayed,
is essential. Even should the Iraqi people fail to take advantage
of the unprecedented chance we have given them to build a better
future, the effort was worthwhile. On its worst day, Iraq is
now a better place than it was before our soldiers crossed its
borders.
If we had not deposed Saddam, dictators everywhere, as well
as terrorists, would have continued to believe that the United
States was all bluster, that Afghanistan was a one-off exception,
an easy score. Indeed, even the tough occupation and our continued
presence serve to prove that the Clinton era is over, that you
can no longer make America run by killing its sons and daughters.
We may lament every American casualty--but not one has died
in vain. Our display of strength, resolve and grit has, indeed,
made America and the world safer--although this struggle will
continue, in many forms, for decades to come. You cannot expect
instant success when faced with a problem that has been forming
for centuries--the decline of a once-great civilization into
a static culture that is entirely parasitic, that makes not a
single positive contribution to the rest of the world. In the
end, no matter what we do, it will be up to the Arabs to right
themselves--and it's far from certain that they will ever show
the will or the wherewithal to fix their broken world. In the
meantime, our liberation of Iraq graphically demonstrated the
price Middle-Eastern regimes can be made to pay when they choose
to export their problems, as Saddam Hussein repeatedly tried
to do.
It doesn't matter in the least if the Baathist regime in Baghdad
had no direct ties to al-Qaeda--both were manifestations of the
same civilizational disease, the same culture of failure, hatred,
oppression and inertia.
There is evil in the world. And if we had not gone to Iraq,
evil would still be flourishing in Baghdad.
We haven't
finished anything in this great struggle. But we've made an
impressive start. CRO
Ralph Peters is the author of Beyond
Baghdad: Postmodern War and Peace.
copyright 2004 - Ralph Peters
Rush
Limbaugh
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