You can just imagine the scene. In some dank cave in Northern Iraq, Saddam Hussein, his sons, and OBL sit around a single cupcake with one candle in it. If he’s still alive, Saddam turned 66 today. His membership in the Anti American Retired Despots must entitle him to discount airfare to Saudi Arabia or Libya. But his pals there would probably be less receptive to his arrival than they might have been in January.
There were several night missions aimed at capturing Saddam last week. The Marines and spec ops guys searched several caves and tunnels near Tikrit. Some had been recently occupied, but neither Saddam nor his sons were found. Ollie North is on his way back, and I’m sure he’s disappointed at not being there when Saddam is finally grabbed. Sandstorms grounded the Blackhawk helo Ollie was flying on after only 60 or 70 miles of travel on Friday. Progress must have been made on Saturday.
Big Dog’s statement that we won’t permit a radical Islamist theocracy in Iraq is also progress. That we mean Iraq to be free must be said over and over again. And we need to prove that those who mean to interfere will be excluded, or worse. The arrest of the self-proclaimed mayor of Baghdad Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi this weekend sends a strong message. This Boss Tweed wannabe was issuing orders, telling Iraqis to not go back to work in the water and electric service agencies in the city, interfering with coalition forces trying to restore normality. Gen. Jay Garner is meeting again today with possible members of a new Iraqi interim authority. The messages sent by Mr. Rumsfeld about the Islamists and in the arrest of al-Zubaidi can only help.
More help should be–but won’t be–coming from the United Nations. We will introduce a Security Council to lift the sanctions on Iraq on the pretty reasonable grounds that the reason they were imposed–Saddam–is moot. Predictably, the Axis of Weasels will stall or block it, and we will again do what we need to do. Do they really believe that we won’t?
The Security Council process is evolving into something the U.N.’s founders could never have envisioned, a diplomatic version of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party with Kofi Annan in the title role. When America asks for some entirely reasonable action, which will help rid the world of some threat, or stabilize a big chunk of it, Kofi and his pals gang up to stop the U.N. from helping or even granting its blessing. The insanity continues until we walk away and do what needs to be done. It’s as though we needed the U.N.’s disapproval to confirm that we’re right. The shrinks call this “negative reinforcement” or something like that. There are no reinforcements for Saddam’s old regime, but the U.N. and the Axis of Weasels are doing what they can to prevent anything from interfering in their access to Iraqi oil. And then there are the war crimes prosecutions.
Not the war crimes by Iraqis, who tortured and murdered POWs from the three wars they have fought–two against us and one against Iran–in the past two decades. Those are of little interest to the Weasels. But the Belgian courts–which fancies itself a court of the world–is about to entertain a lawsuit against Tommy Franks and other Americans, alleging war crimes in the Iraq campaign.
Belgium’s people apparently wanted to be French but couldn’t make the grade. Instead, their egos have created a court in which anyone can be sued–or indicted criminally–on war crimes charges brought by anyone. Some Iraqi civilians are–according to the Washington Times–preparing civil and criminal charges against General Franks and other Americans for “indiscriminate killing of Iraqi civilians, the bombing of a marketplace in Baghdad, and shooting of an ambulance and failure to prevent the mass looting of hospitals.” If indictments were issued, Franks and the others could be arrested if they entered Belgium. NATO’s headquarters is in Brussels. It will just have to be moved, if NATO can be resurrected.
Today, the Weasels are themselves meeting in Brussels to lay the groundwork for driving a stake through NATO’s heart and forming their own military alliance, excluding the United States and Britain. Little Jacky Chirac, along with Schroeder of Germany, and their Belgian and Luxembourgian counterparts, want to guarantee each other’s security. I only hope they rely on Belgium for protection.
Last year, there was a big kerfuffle among Belgium’s army brass when it was revealed that the Belgian army was–and as Dave Barry often writes, I’m not making this up–routinely carrying toy guns in training and on parade. Seems that the troops like them because they’re easier to maintain (no getting your hands dirty cleaning a weapon after you use it) and lighter to carry. Toy guns, toy army, toy country. The Weasels’ new toy alliance will be just as effective a guarantor of their security as Belgium’s toy guns.