Sunday, January 30, 2005
Election in Iraq!
Democracy continues to spread. Today, what the left has been saying was impossible happened. A relatively peaceful election in Iraq occurred, on schedule. The administration resisted the calls for delay, and proved the pessimists wrong yet again. The naysayers who said Iraquis didn't want freedom were....wrong. The pessimists who said our military solutions could not be achieved were...wrong. The passifists who said we should just let the terrorists have their way were...wrong.
It's true terrorism is far from vanquished. GWB never said this was going to be a quick result. As much as we hate war, as much as we would love to embrace passivism, as sickened as we are that brave young men and women die in battle, it now must be admitted, after Afghanistan and Iraq that military objectives and solutions can be legitimate and are possible to accomplish.
The appeasers have been wrong throughout history. Their mantra is that nothing we can achieve on the battlefield is worth the sacrifice of the lives lost. Though that sacrifice is always tragic and hurtful, consider the costs of appeasement: seventy years of an Orwellian nightmare called the Soviet Union; 20 million dead, mostly civilians, because the Nazi's were allowed to grow powerful;, 47 years of Cuban impoverishment; 50 years of Maoist torture, from which the Chinese are only now emerging; at least a million dead compliments of Sadam. Not to mention the atrocities continuing in Africa, and the growing menace in Venezuela. The stifling theocracy in Iran. A society so awful in North Korea, that its people will do anything to escape. The cost of allowing these cruelties is also incalculable.
One of the constants of human weakness is greed, and with that comes the temptation for the strong to subjugate the weak. As long as that remains a human constant, the right thinking peoples of the world will, on occasion, have to stand up and be counted. The war on terror, and the battle for Iraq are part of that. The failure of most of the Europeans to join us is the continuing 65 year story of their appeasement strategy, grown out of their disastrous WW1 experience. Maybe that was understandable once, but it's time for them to grow up.
Meanwhile, I had to chuckle at GWB today, appearing before the cameras, trying to be Presidential and avoid that "I told you so" smirk. That's OK George. Just keep doin' what you're doin'. History will get it right.
It's true terrorism is far from vanquished. GWB never said this was going to be a quick result. As much as we hate war, as much as we would love to embrace passivism, as sickened as we are that brave young men and women die in battle, it now must be admitted, after Afghanistan and Iraq that military objectives and solutions can be legitimate and are possible to accomplish.
The appeasers have been wrong throughout history. Their mantra is that nothing we can achieve on the battlefield is worth the sacrifice of the lives lost. Though that sacrifice is always tragic and hurtful, consider the costs of appeasement: seventy years of an Orwellian nightmare called the Soviet Union; 20 million dead, mostly civilians, because the Nazi's were allowed to grow powerful;, 47 years of Cuban impoverishment; 50 years of Maoist torture, from which the Chinese are only now emerging; at least a million dead compliments of Sadam. Not to mention the atrocities continuing in Africa, and the growing menace in Venezuela. The stifling theocracy in Iran. A society so awful in North Korea, that its people will do anything to escape. The cost of allowing these cruelties is also incalculable.
One of the constants of human weakness is greed, and with that comes the temptation for the strong to subjugate the weak. As long as that remains a human constant, the right thinking peoples of the world will, on occasion, have to stand up and be counted. The war on terror, and the battle for Iraq are part of that. The failure of most of the Europeans to join us is the continuing 65 year story of their appeasement strategy, grown out of their disastrous WW1 experience. Maybe that was understandable once, but it's time for them to grow up.
Meanwhile, I had to chuckle at GWB today, appearing before the cameras, trying to be Presidential and avoid that "I told you so" smirk. That's OK George. Just keep doin' what you're doin'. History will get it right.
