(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed t ha t Saddam ha s been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades Saddam is a terrorist! Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more t ha n a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We ha ve focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't ha ve to get here. We also ha ve a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a catalyst for democratic c ha nge in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945 -- a 17 year war -- and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . a 27 year war.
WW II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP -- adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more t ha n 400,000 soldiers killed in action, and nearl y 100,000 still missing in action.
The Iraq war ha s, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly w ha t the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It ha s also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivilant to lives t ha t the Ji ha d killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack .
The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would ha ve been unimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism .
This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay . The real world is not like t ha t. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always ha s been, and probably always will be
The bottom line is t ha t we will ha ve to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever t ha t is. It will not go away if we ignore it .
If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we ha ve an ally, like England , in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.
The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons. Unless somebody prevents them from getting them.
We ha ve four options:
1. We can defeat the Ji ha d now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Ji ha d later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is w ha t Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Ji ha d and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
OR
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Ji ha d is more widespread and better armed, per ha ps after the Ji ha d ha s dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea t ha t your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the S ha ria, an America t ha t resembles Iran today.
The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about w ha t society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win . The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them .
Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.
The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!
Europe spent the first ha lf of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation, and the US still ha s troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more t ha n 50,000,000 people, maybe more t ha n 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US ha s taken more t ha n 3,000 killed in action in Iraq.. The US took more t ha n 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944 , the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week -- for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans t ha n the entire Iraq war ha s done so far.
The stakes are at least as high . . A world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wah ha bi movement, by the Ji ha d, under the Mullahs and the S ha ria (Islamic law).
It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
"Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America , where it's safe.
Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Spain, North Korea, in the places t ha t really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!
The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Ji ha d wins, wherever the Ji ha d wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
