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March
18, 2003 9:00
a.m.
War
Has Come
Next
stop: the battlefield.
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 he
president reviewed the history of disarming Saddam Hussein, and reminded
us it is not pretty: violation of the 1991 armistice accords, obstruction
of U.N. resolutions, sanctions, and inspectors, a record of aggression,
hatred of America, and a propensity to abet and engage in terrorism.
He made a good case
that we didn't ask for this war. But war nonetheless has come due to the
12 years of U.N. dereliction and the moral cowardice of the world —
a policy of appeasement that nearly ruined the 20th century, but in an
age of frightful weapons would surely result in global suicide of our
own.
The fact is that
U.S. Marines will find more deadly weapons in the first hours of war than
the U.N. did in three months. And by day two the world will have forgotten
Dominique de Villepin and be listening instead to Tommy Franks, who will
practice a different sort of diplomacy. Get out of town in 48 hours sounds
tough — but not when it results in liberation, rather than subjugation,
and reconstruction instead of destruction.
Critics have claimed
that Mr. Bush has backed himself into a corner; it is hard to see how
when his promise was democracy and freedom for a tyrannized Iraq. We should
not underestimate the power of his message of human liberty or the need
of overwhelming force to ensure it. The EU, the U.N., NATO, the European
street, the American Left, and a host of others, by failing to understand
the post 9/11 world and its requirement to neutralize Saddam Hussein,
have unnecessarily put their perceived wisdom, prestige, and influence
in jeopardy — and with the liberation of Iraq they all are going
to lose big time.
Now the battlefield,
Thucydides's harsh schoolmaster, will adjudicate what talk cannot. The
only question remaining is not the ultimate verdict, but to what degree
the past failure of allies to support the United States emboldened Saddam
Hussein, cost the American military tactical surprise, complicated logistics,
and needlessly raised casualties.
Finally Mr. Bush's
grim speech was a reminder why "a peaceful but not fragile"
America is different from the U.N. and the nations that are in it. They
either use force or embrace principles, but rarely both and never at the
same time. It is impossible to imagine a French or German statesman ever
giving such a tough speech about the price of freedom, and harder still
to believe any of their people would ever listen to it.
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