A rchive Date
[ 13-04-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mulroney.html
Dining on crow
Where now are the war naysayers who predicted catastrophe in Iraq?
By BEN MULRONEY - For the Sun
April 13, 2003
It must be so hard for U.S. President George W. Bush not to say "I told you so."
Over the past six months, he and his administration have been called every name in the book. He is a racist, he is a monster and he has sent his country to war with little or no justification.
It is true that supporters of Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair must be prepared for the possibility that weapons of mass destruction will never be found in Iraq. While I believe that we must wait until coalition forces have had a chance to survey the country freely and completely, my discomfort will be quashed by the images of celebration, jubilation and the outright resurrection of the spirit of an entire people.
Last week, coalition forces discovered a prison where children who had refused to join the youth arm of the Baath party had been imprisoned. That bears repeating: Under Saddam Hussein's regime, children were ripped from the arms of their mothers and imprisoned.
I dare Michael Moore to look those kids in the eye and tell them that their liberty was not reason enough for war.
'Tipping point'
In an interview last week, Arthur Kent, the war correspondent whose face became synonymous with the original Persian Gulf War, analyzed Iraqi support for Saddam's administration.
He referred to a "tipping point," a moment when the Iraqi people would know and feel that the regime under which they had lived (if one can call it living) could survive no longer.
At that point, they would be free of the fear of reprisals by the secret police, the army or any number of organizations established under Saddam's rule to ensure complete control, and express their true feelings.
Before coalition forces can signal anything resembling victory, a free and independent Iraqi government must be erected. That government must have the funds with which to rebuild the country's war-torn infrastructure and the liberty to choose a form of government representative of the interests of its people. But while total victory in the war against Saddam is still off in the distance, the same cannot be said of the battle against the anti-war movement.
I find it interesting that the same journalists who but two weeks ago were drawing parallels between this war in Iraq and the Vietnam conflict are today stating that the outcome of this clash was never in doubt.
Rush to save face
But journalists are not the only ones looking for the best way to save face.
The leaders of Russia, Germany and France will be meeting soon to discuss their favourite recipes for crow. As the loudest opponents of the war, they must figure out what their position will be in the face of such a positive outcome.
Some on their side of the fence will no doubt lament the death of the United Nations. They will complain about U.S. aggression and its overly ambitious designs to rewrite the history of the Middle East.
But in the end, a great many of those people will have to come face to face with toppling of statues, twirling women and smiling children. And if enough of those people can cut through their haze of anti-Americanism, then a second tipping point will occur - and Bush will be called a new set of names, most notably Hero.
Read Ben Mulroney every Sunday. Contact him at bmulroney@canoemail.com. Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@sunpub.com.
 World Fact Book (CIA )]
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