May 30, 2004

Bush Speech Series Detail Strategy for Epoch War

For anti-war critics who worry more about an "exit plan" for Iraq -- rather than a victory plan – President Bush outlined one last week in detail.

Of course it had been in place from Day 1, but it had not been concluded by VI-Day 2. Instant gratification is alive and well amongst the me-first-and-only class.

The problem has not been that there was no plan. It is simply that those wanting peace at any price – a la British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in the run up to World War II – don’t like the Bush plan.

Nonetheless, the President ran through his five-point exit plan before the U.S. War College for officers on their way to generalships.

There are five, exiting steps that even apoplectic Democrats should understand:

• Hand over authority to a sovereign Iraqi government June 30.  
• Help establish security.
• Continue rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure.
• Encourage more international support.
• Move toward a national election by year’s end for new leaders empowered by the Iraqi people.

What part of this plan don’t Bush critics understand? A brush up on phonics might help them.

Where did the notion come from that a year of pacification and reconstruction is intolerable?

Three years after the Kosovo war, NATO and American military forces have boots on the ground there. Nonetheless, Serbs and Albanians are still killing each other under the United Nations banner.

We still have large contingents of American soldiers in Germany and South Korea.

The reality is that the concept of representative government is anathema to would-be dictators, sectarian despots, under-educated zealots and citizens who have lived for generations under brutal regimes. The Mideast is overrun with them.

Change will come slowly. The crucial question is whether the U.S. bastion against terrorism is willing and strong enough to persevere?

Certainly not with the likes of senators John Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Joseph Biden, Carl Levin and representatives Nancy Pelosi, Charles Rangel and Maxine Waters – radicals all.

Former Vice-President Al Gore came down with the screaming meemies. That poor man needs psychiatric help.  

They came completely unglued by the audacity of President Bush explaining his plan directly with the American people.

The carpers got more network television time to unleash their venom than President Bush got (zero) for explaining the intricacies of war and peace. Only the cable gave full, live coverage.

Bush has scheduled five more in-depth Monday-night speeches to relate the aims, accomplishments and objectives of the War on Terrorism.

One may disagree with his candor – and his perception of the terrorist threat – but none can fairly deny the threat of terrorism to the United States.

Previous administrations, here and abroad, patiently endured terrorist atrocities with the notion violent acts were errant and manageable. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

Terrorism is a world threat that began as a Muslim civil war -- by fanatic Taliban and Wahabists against the intrusion of modernism in the Sunni, Shiaa and Bathist sects.

Sideshows are Israel and dictatorial ambitions by Mideast Muslin states to control Persian Gulf oil.

Saddam Hussein and Usama Bin Laden were merely script-prompters when Alqueda murdered 3,000 Americans in the Twin Towers and Pentagon attacks.

Those attacks were more heinous and deadly than the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. President Bush had no choice but to defend the country against such further unprovoked attacks.

Inasmuch as Alqueda was holed up in Afghanistan, Bush had to start the counter-attack there. Bin Laden is on the run.

Next, Bush had to move against Iraq because Saddam defied the world, his own people and his neighbors in the Persian Gulf War.

Saddam harbored terrorists. He used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. For ten years he defied United Nations inspectors trying to account for his weapons.

The Butcher of Baghdad was captured in a dirt hole and awaits judgment.  

President Bush tomorrow evening continues his detailed plans for the ongoing war against terrorism.

The liberal media, again, will wallow in inanities while our commander-in-chief outlines the strategy which his administration will try to implement in the epoch battle barely begun.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be contacted at linwms@lindseywilliams.org