This article makes a good point. The USA has the power to bomb the middle east off the face of the earth, but we don't and we won't. The sad fact is, that some would want another September 11th to happen before we did anything about the threat of Iraq. So this begs the question, why do something now? What threat does Iraq represent to worldwide security? For one they support terrorism monetarily, for another they are developing weapons of mass destruction, third they thumb their nose at the international community and the restrictions that have been placed upon them by such and fourth they have shown a willingness to aid terrorists with both training and technology. Through volumes of evidence provided by history and intelligence, those who will pay attention clearly know that Iraq is a rogue state that is not only a threat to America, but also the entire free world.
Whats the link to international terrorism then? Terrorists are people who not only hate the USA, but the entire western world as well. They want to destroy not only our way of life, but our very lives themselves. Can you tell me with a straight face, considering the facts that we know and considering history, that Saddam Hussein if given the opportunity, wouldn't help these terrorists develop a "dirty bomb" to unleash in one of our cities? Or do you think he would not give the terrorists some anthrax or other biological agent to put into our water supply? September 11 was real and it wasn't just a game or a ploy, there are people out there who would love to see 1,000 september 11s happen all over the globe and they are working to make that a reality. Saddam Hussein is one of these people. And this is why he must be stopped. Because of what he wants, because of what he has proven he is willing to do and because of the people he has helped.
Of course, war is hell. Nobody likes war, but how are we to deal with problems when a diplomatic solution cannot be worked out? Saddam does not deal honorably, has he kept even one of the agreements that he signed off on after losing the last war? No, he hasn't. He has kept a sleepy world off of his tail by trickery, delay and deception for over 12 years now. For 12 years the man has had an opportunity to ensure that there is no war, for 12 years he has had the opportunity to cooperate and disarm, for 12 years this man has had the opportunity to stop being a threat to all of us and basically his response to the rest of the world was a hearty, "up yours". But now the world is no longer asleep as it once was. Awakened by September 11, a time when some of us fully realized that there are people out there who want to kill us: babies, mothers, fathers, grandparents, all of us. We now realize that threats such as Saddam Hussein cannot be taken lightly. That threats like him must be erradicated and he will be erradicated.
Probably within the next couple of weeks, the US will act, most likely along with our close allies, Great Britain, to disarm Saddam Hussein by force. It will be a quick and decisive victory, limiting civilian casualties and aimed at Saddams threat, himself and his weapons. There will be a regime change in Iraq and the UN will be involved in giving the Iraqi people a real chance at self determination and a word that has not even been uttered in the Iraq for some time, freedom. How this story ends will be up to the Iraqi people and not up to the United States, who has no entrest in empire, but in erradicating threats to world security and in turn our own security.
So what of those other threats? North Korea is a perfect example of what we want to prevent from happening in Iraq. So many times the west has given in to North Korea, proclaiming that a piece of paper signed by their leaders somehow gaurantees "peace in our time". And then how many of these good faith agreements has North Korea then trampled on, in order to get more aid, more technology and more money out of a scared west? We will not allow this cycle, that has led to North Korea being able to develop nuclear weapons, and the missles to carry them, to continue. North Korea will not be able to blackmail the west any longer, a hard stance will be taken against them and they will have to back down. It has the benefit of never having been tried, we have tried appeasement time and again and history has shown us that appeasement never works.
So september 11 did change things. We have to look at the rest of the world differently now. Either we can back down to those who wish to destroy our life or we can fight to defend our life, just as we have been forced to do every century since our modern democracy was formed. Funny, each time we do, the world becomes a little better place to live in, whie during those times that we did nothing, the world became rapidly worse and opressive.