THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume V, Issue # 106, April 9, 2003
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE U.S.A. SHOULD OCCUPY IRAQ
By Alan Caruba
I am hearing a lot of very silly talk coming from President Bush and Prime Minister Blair. Both keep saying that the Iraqis should run Iraq. The
Iraqis have a 4,000-year history of being ruled by despots of every description. Furthermore, they are Muslims, preferring Islamic law, which is
based solely on the Koran, and they have NO experience whatever with constitutional representative government. Then throw in the conflicts
among Kurds, Sunnis and Shi'ites, and you have the perfect recipe for chaos.
Simply stated, the United States of America should occupy and run Iraq for as long as it takes to get that nation -- or, more accurately,
conglomeration of nations -- on its feet eco- nomically, socially, and politically. The Iraqis need a real system of laws and justice. We should
leave only when Iraqis have been given the opportunity and experience of actually participating in a constitutional representative government
and those lessons have been passed onto a new generation through the educational system.
Why have Americans suddenly developed a distaste for occupying nations we have conquered or invaded? It is because they have forgotten
or never learned their own history!
First, it was a bunch of malcontents from the British Isles and Northwestern Europe who came over and "occupied" what would become the
United States of America. Until their arrival, the land belonged to indigenous Indian tribes. When there was a critical mass of people calling
themselves Americans, we fought a war with Britain to continue our "occupation", declaring ourselves a sovereign and independent nation.
When more people showed up, we began our trek to the West Coast, occupying "Indian territory." In fact, we set up a number of forts and
fought the Indians, and then we put them on reservations.
Along the way, we occupied large areas of land that belonged to Mexico. Texas, settled by Americans but a part of Mexico, first declared itself
an independent nation and then petitioned for and was granted annexation by the U.S.A. and admission into the American Union as a State.
Then, through conquest and acquisition, we added California and the territories of New Mexico and Arizona to our map.
America occupied Hawaii from July 7, 1890, until it became a State. We also found time to occupy the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, and we ran the Philippines from 1898 until 1946. When we gave it back to the Filipinos, we included a wonderful constitution, but that nation turned sullen and ungrateful. They have since invited us to send some troops to help them chase and kill Communist and Islamic terrorists.
Our occupation of both Germany and Japan after World War II was both benevolent and inspirational. In Japan, General Douglas McArthur
became a virtual shogun from 1945 to 1949. The U.S.A. ended its occupation of Japan in 1952, when the Japanese were al- lowed to become an independent, self-governing nation. We stayed over nine years in Germany, from 1945 to 1954, ending the occupation only after we felt confident the Ger- mans had rid themselves and their nation of the Nazis and Nazi ideology. Our troops have been there ever since, initially to protect Germans and others against the threat of a Soviet Russian invasion. Now there's a possibility we might move somewhere more friendly. If we do that, the Germans will miss the millions we pump into their economy.
So why wouldn't we occupy Iraq? Why shouldn't we? There are many good reasons for this, not the least because the Iraqis have proven over the millennia that they require a strong hand, when it comes to being governed. A country does not become a constitu- tional democratic nation-state--or multinational state--overnight. It takes time, and part of the effort will be the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure. An entire middle class of entrepreneurs must be created virtually from scratch! Someone has to administer the millions of dollars its oil will produce, and I suggest that someone be America. There is a need too for reparations to the U.S.A., Great Britain, and other coalition members for the costs of the war.
There were and are practical reasons for invading and occupying Iraq. The most impor- tant one was to rid our nation of yet another Middle Eastern political regime supporting and funding terrorism directed against Americans. We took away Osama bin Laden's base in Afghanistan and now we have rid ourselves of Saddam Hussein.
I am not suggesting we invade Syria or Iran. With any luck and cunning, the Iranians can be encouraged to topple the oligarchy of ayatollahs making their lives of miserable. The sheer stagnancy of Syria might bring about regime change there. Most certainly, how- ever, a large American presence in Iraq for a long time to come will have the effect of bringing about the change that must come to this cancerous region of the world.
There's another reason to occupy Iraq. It is to keep France, Germany, and Russia out of there. They chose to oppose our war and now let them stand in the corner with the rest of the losers. And let's keep the United Nations out of Iraq in any capacity. The UN is the reason we were forced to put our Armed Forces in harm's way. It should be rebuffed and humbled in every way possible.
Under Saddam Hussein, the Baathist Party in Iraq was no different from the Nazi Party in Germany and Austria. Like the Nazi Party, the Baathist Party is a bunch of political gangsters and thugs who seized power in order to plunder their country.
The Baathists are the same people who fought a war with Iran for eight years, achieving a stalemate. And then they invaded Kuwait!
It will take years to find a few decent Iraqis to run their country and years to put on trial and shoot the tyrants and gangsters who previously ruled Iraq.
I fear, though, based on the rhetoric coming out of the White House and 10 Downing Street, that the United States and Great Britain are going to make the biggest mistake ever. They are going to try to get out of Iraq as quickly as possible in order to avoid being called "occupiers" (a term which, until now, has been applied exclusively to Israel by the Arabs for over 55 years.)
What is wrong with running the place our troops fought and died to liberate? The first instinct of the Iraqis was to loot it.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center (www.anxietycenter.com). He is the author of A POCKET GUIDE TO MILITANT ISLAM and THE UNITED NATIONS VS. THE UNITED STATES, both available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maple- wood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2003 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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