November 30, 2003

Texan Stirs Critics With Daring Iraq Solution

The ramrod saddled up and high-tailed it to cut off rustlers at the pass.

Sorry. Texas cowboy talk is irresistible in describing President Bush’s secret flight to Baghdad for Thanksgiving dinner with the troops.

Such nomenclature is an appropriate response to the calumny by left-leaning critics of President Bush and the War on Terrorism in Iraq.

The nit picking by eight of the nine Democrat presidential wannabes – particularly Howard Dean – has become tiresome. By default, Sen. Joe Liberman comes across as a statesman with half a chance to win support from moderate voters.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the commander in chief and his sidekicks round up votes for meaningful legislation that his opponents oppose -- and for electoral votes in 2004.

Bush’s secret flight on Air Force One to Baghdad was a rousing success.

It’s no wonder. Bush-haters in Congress, "mainline" media and the entertainment industry have come unglued. It is doubtful that the Humpty Dumptys in La La Land can be put together again.

Their litany of alleged "mistakes" in Iraq are numerous and specious. We should have:

• Gotten United Nations approval first.
• Persuaded NATO to help us.
• Had a foolproof exit strategy
• Put more, or different, troops in Iraq.
• Not have fired Iraqi soldiers.
• Won the hearts and minds of Iraqis.  
• Killed Saddam.
• Found weapons of mass destruction.
• Prevented looting.
• Blocked import of foreign terrorists.

There is more, but you get the point. War is Hell. Enemies, particularly losing ones, do unexpected things. Accidents happen. Human beings make mistakes. Leaders readjust to changing conditions.

It is pointless, even self-defeating, to flagellate ourselves at this time with the perceived faults listed above. That kind of criticism only weakens our resolve and encourages desperate enemies to keep fighting.

When armed conflict is over, it will be constructive to examine past experience so we can shape future actions of like nature.

Nonetheless, it is proper at this juncture to debate possible courses of action to alleviate problems. In this spirit we can examine the outburst last week by retired U.S., Army Lt.-Gen. Jay Garner to the British Broadcasting Company.

Gen. Garner, a native of Arcadia, headed the first occupation government in Iraq. Formerly he ran the relief mission for Kurdish refugees after the 1991 Gulf War.

Presumably, he was to rebuild Iraq and install representative democracy -- as Gen. Douglas McArthur did for Japan after World War II.

Unfortunately, Iraqis are divided into three, hostile religious groups – unlike the cohesive Japanese who still required 10 years to morph into a democracy.  

Widespread looting in Iraq took place as Saddam’s army melted into the general population and Alqueda hustled in reinforcements. Somebody at the White House panicked.

Three weeks later, Garner was replaced with L. Paul Bremer III as presidential envoy to Iraq. As such, he reports to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and oversees reconstruction efforts there.  

Ambassador Bremer has served in the U.S. diplomatic corps for 23 years -- including appointment by President Reagan as ambassador-at-large for counter-terrorism.

Gen. Garner says he was undermined by rivalry between the Defense and State departments – that is, Rumsfeld (hawk) and Colin Powell (dove).  

If so, President Bush split the difference – a State Department civilian administration for Iraq supervised by the Defense Department military.

Frankly, the meld seems a half-man-half-woman freak-show attraction. But the breakup of the 1950’s balance of power among industrial nations has resulted in a new global dynamic.

We have not yet learned how to cope with easy-to-build weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, cell phones, television, computers, jet planes, inter-connected trade markets, universal culture and collapsing religions.

Terrorism by bewildered terrorists has made resolution of modern problems urgently immediate. Obviously the United Nations/League of Nations experiments are failures.

Human nature being what it is, representative democracy and a balance of power is the only route to world peace and prosperity.

President Bush’s novel approach in Iraq may, or may not, be the wave of the future. But time no longer passes. Now it gallops.

The Iraq upheaval is showdown with six-shooters at the OK corral.

PARTING SHOTS

Japan has decided not to send troops for Iraq but will contribute 1,214 soccer balls. All the coalition has to do is organize 2,428 professional soccer teams.

* * *

John Kerry fired his campaign manager and hired Teddy Kennedy’s chief of staff. Who is in charge of whom?  

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers