Out of Iraq

A message published at OpinionJournal.

And some prognostications from your Faithful, Humble Blogster.

From Claudia Rosett today:

From northern Iraq, in the U.S.- and British-protected no-fly zone, a friend sent me a message last weekend. I quote from it here at length because it is a bracing reply to the U.N. charades and the "peace" parades now filling the vacuum while the world waits for President Bush to act. This message comes from someone living on the front line, facing Saddam Hussein's army in the same region where Saddam years ago confirmed his zest for weapons of mass murder by gassing to death thousands of Kurds:

Now, this UN business is really depressing me. Why can't they do the right thing? Many nations contributed to building this monstrous regime. Why not help to undo the damage inflicted on us?

The "No Blood for Oil" signs are particularly galling. Loads of Iraqi blood has already been spilled. At least half a million in the Iraq-Iran war, a couple of hundred thousand are estimated to have died in the Gulf War, a couple of hundred thousand Kurds disappeared in the 1980s, I have no idea how many Shias and Marsh Arabs and other Arabs against the regime have been murdered. Thousands of prisoners have also disappeared or been executed. The list goes on. It is enough.

Please send help. Everyone here wants this to be over. It is hard to imagine anything but celebrations if this monster is overthrown at long last.

My friend adds, in a reference to Saddam's troops: "We hear regularly from the other side that they will not fight. They ask us all the time if the Americans are here already. They plead for us to tell them when the attack is starting so they can give up. They cannot do it until action starts, or they will be murdered." ....

Let me take this occasion to note three things.

First, I am among those who believe that the defeat and destruction of Saddam Hussein's regime will bring rejoicing to the oppressed peoples of Iraq. You could search high and low for days and weeks and months from North to South and East to West to find as much anti-American sentiment in post-Saddam Iraq as you could find in an hour in one city block in Hollywood.

Second, most of those participating in the recent "peace" marches will not care that Iraqis have been freed from the brutal rule of a monstrous tyrant. You got that right: they will not care. Let me say it again: they will not care.

Third, mainstream media will do its best to give as little attention as (in)humanly possible to the real, actual results of the liberation of the Iraqi people. Oh, you'll know all about it — because FNC, and The Washington Times, and Rush Limbaugh, and Jim Quinn, and websites and weblogs galore will be covering the good news as much as possible. (And, maybe, The Washington Post, too.) But Dan, and Tom, and Peter, and The New York Times, and the Associated Press — and everybody in MM who follows their lead — will drop the Iraqi Liberation story as soon as possible. After they have searched high and low from North to South and East to West to find as much anti-American sentiment in post-Saddam Iraq as you could find in one city block in Hollywood.

Can't give that damned Republican George Bush any credit for doing anything good, dontchaknow.

You think I'm wrong? Well, I'm sorry to have to say it. And I hope I'm wrong about it, too.

But you heard it here first.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 02/19/03 03:59:30 PM
Categorized as Most Notable & Political.