Friday, November 21, 2003

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend?

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend?

Before I read the British Broadcasting Corporation’s report on the ironically misnamed “anti-war movement” in Italy, a part of me wanted to believe that the left was simply naïve. Now I know better. I really couldn’t completely convince myself that those who wish us to leave Iraq immediately completely grasped the consequences such an abandonment would reap. Now, I believe they do. Further, I believe that they embrace those consequences.
Even as Italy is mourning 19 soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq, a group calling itself the “Antiimperialistas” was raising money for their killers.
Antiimperialista spokesman Moreno Pasquinelli said, “It’s not our affair how they use this money. If they want to use it to print papers for example, or to buy weapons in order to fight for the Iraqi independence," he said. "We support the armed struggle in Iraq. Our money is to help them, it doesn't matter to us if they use it to buy weapons, Kalashnikovs, or medicines for people."
I don’t think they’ll be spending Antiimperialista money on Band-Aids. The Iraqis get all the medicine they want from us. And I don’t think Mr. Pasquinelli really believes that Iraqis yearn for the good old days of Saddam Hussein’s sadistic despotism. He just wants to see his own country fail.
Surely the anti-war crowd in this country can foresee what the future holds should we quit Iraq. And I believe that is precisely the future of their fantasies. Just look at what happened when, on a much smaller and less consequential scale, Clinton fled from the Sudan after a single Blackhawk helicopter was shot down. What lessons did our enemies learn when Clinton called off a Marine landing in Haiti when they were confronted by machete-wielding drunks? The terrorists could not help but conclude that America lacked the will to stand up for itself.
Surely Ted Kennedy and Howard Dean do not seriously believe that the UN is capable of building a free, peaceful and stable Iraq. Considering how the UN fled from both Iraq and Afghanistan after taking a few casualties, does any serious-minded person really believe that these cowards can keep Iraq from falling back into the hands of the Baathists? Would the UN even care?
The people who are planting and detonating roadside bombs and shooting rocket-propelled grenades at our helicopters are not trying to achieve a free Iraq. They want to re-impose some sort of Islamo-fascism, - Saddam-style, Iranian-style, or Bin Laden-style. They are not trying to win self-determination for the Iraqi people. They want to dictate the Iraqi people’s future.
There is no middle ground. If Iraq is not transformed into a stable, prosperous and peaceful nation, then it will serve as an incubator for terrorism. The only course to peace is the path we are now on. Retreat is defeat.
It’s useful to remember who it is that is shooting at us over there. They are the professional rapists whose resumes are not of much use unless Saddam is set back on his throne as a conquering hero. They are the thugs who pulled the tongues out of people suspected of whispering against the prior regime. They are the sadistic goons who kept children in dungeons. They are the guys who once strutted the streets of Baghdad and fed on the terror their uniforms incited in the common people.
Retreat would put them back in charge and more powerful than ever, because if they drive us out, then they know that we’ll never again marshal the will to kick them out again.
Unquestionably those who are killing our soldiers are encouraged by the anti-war rhetoric in this country. They know that they cannot actually match us in force of arms, but they realistically believe that, with the cooperation of the Seattle Times, CBS, NBC, the BBC, the New York Times, and the Democratic Party, they can wilt our will.
I still do not believe that Saddam resurrected is the Left’s dream. But a weakened and humiliated America is. And they’re willing to sell the Iraqi people back to Saddam in exchange for an American defeat.
I have to give Italy’s Antiimperialistas credit for one virtue that our own Left lacks – honesty regarding their intentions.

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