THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 219, October 18, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
IRAQ: THE RIGHT WAR IN THE RIGHT PLACE,
BUT NOT FOR THE REASON YOU THINK
By Alan Caruba
THE WAR IN IRAQ -- THE LONGTERM STRATEGIC REASON FOR AMERICA'S MILITARY INVOLVEMENT IN IRAQ:
THE RESULTING POSITION OF POWER WHICH WILL, IN TIME, ENABLE THE U.S.A. TO DECISIVELY INFLUENCE & SHAPE
EVENTS THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST & CENTRAL ASIA & REDUCE THE WORLDWIDE THREATS THAT HAVE THEIR
GENESIS IN THAT REGION
FULL STORY:
There’s a saying among journalists. “If your Mother says she loves you, check it out.” It’s a way of training rookies to be skeptical
of what anyone has to say for public consumption and, in particular, politicians.
It is an article of faith among journalists (and many others) that the government is not likely to be telling the truth for a whole host
of reasons, quite a few of which often make very good sense. After 9-11, the job of the White House was to keep Americans calm
while, in reality, they discovered they had virtually no actionable intelligence about who had attacked us and, more importantly,
whether they would again.
It turns out that the objective of al-Qa'ida was to force America to launch a military invasion, to draw the U.S.A. into a
confrontation that, on paper, looked one-sided. We had lots of planes, tanks, ships; a mighty arsenal. Al-Qa'ida, however, was a
deliberately amorphous, impossible to predict, relatively small group of people. They are motivated to overthrow the “Crusaders,”
the sheiks who cooperated with them, and then establish a new Caliphate in which Islam would regain its former power.
The White House might not have known too much about al-Qa'ida, but it knew where its base of operations was -- Afghanistan.
What we did was rent an army, the Northern Alliance of warlords, to overthrow the Taliban with whom al-Qa'ida was allied.
Finally, in Tora Bora, we made a great show of bombing al-Qa'ida’s forces, but the truth was that the caves and tunnels there
were a superb redoubt in which to survive. When the bombing stopped, al-Qa'ida operatives just disappeared into areas of
Pakistan where even the Pakistani government exercised little power -- or they went across the border into Iran.
While Senator John Kerry runs about calling for a renewed effort to find al-Qa'ida and calling the war in Iraq a mistake, he is
either the most cynical politician since Aaron Burr or he is too stupid to be walked without a leash. Anyone in Washington with
any access to intelligence knows that, until Muslim nations (and others around the world) decided to cast their lot with us, few
inside the Beltway had much of a clue where al-Qa'ida was, who al-Qa'ida was, or what al-Qa'ida planned to do next.
That has changed. Al-Qa'ida’s leaders and funding are being pursued and much damage has been done. The key factor to keep
in mind is that the anticipated uprising of the “Arab street” never occurred.
What we do know is that al-Qa'ida’s creators, and those running the organization, are very, very smart. That said, since they
now pose a threat to every nation on earth, whatever mistakes any of them make will prove fatal. The notion that the U.S.A.
should be dispatching more troops to chase up and down the hills of Afghanistan looking for them is just so idiotic that
someone should be chasing Senator Kerry with a big net. What Afghanistan needs is a stable government and an economy
that connects to the world, offering it something more than heroin.
Which leaves the question of what the hell are we doing in Iraq? And is it a good question, given the amount of national treasure
being spent and the loss of some very brave soldiers? Let’s get one thing out of the way. There were no WMDs and that was
not the real reason we invaded Iraq.
The real reason is brilliantly spelled out by George Friedman, the founder of Stratfor, a private company providing some of the
best intelligence analysis found anywhere outside of the CIA. (Maybe even better than the CIA.) His new book, America’s
Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and its Enemies ($35.95, Doubleday) tells you what
occurred in the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, the CIA, and everywhere else in the world
that had an interest in American succeeding or failing. If you read no other book this year, read this one.
The real reason is also both complex and nuanced. One does not go to war frivolously, but neither do you have to be the
President, a four-star General, or a Ph.D. in global affairs to figure out why we’re in Iraq. All you have to do is look at a map.
Iraq is the single most strategic nation in the Middle East.
As Friedman notes, “It borders on six other countries: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. In other words,
from Iraq — and with its forces in Afghanistan — the United States could influence events in countries that ranged from the
Himalayas to the Mediterranean and from the Black Sea and the Caucuses to the Red and Arabian Seas. Like its predecessor,
Mesopotamia, Iraq is the pivot of the Middle East.”
Apparently, Senator Kerry hasn’t looked at a map lately, because he is fixated on our retreat from a position of power that will,
in time, greatly reduce the threats that bubble beneath the surface throughout the Middle East and get exported from there.
Now, keep this in mind. We did not attack al-Qa'ida, a movement with broad support among the 1.3 billion Muslims spread
throughout the Middle East and around the world. Muslims are in Europe, in South America, in Africa, and in Asia. There are
nearly two million here in the United States. Al-Qa'ida attacked us. Among those who were not entirely displeased to see that
occur were Saudi Arabia, Syria, France, Germany, Russia and China. These nations and a host of others have their own
agenda and an American empire or hegemony is not one of them.
We are in Iraq because the general view throughout the Middle East was that the United States of America lacked the guts to
wage and win a war. If we can bring an end to the guerrilla war in Iraq, maneuvering, i.e., buying our way through the often
shifting alliances of Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, and even Iran, we will have proved them wrong.
Once a new government in Iraq is secure, functioning, and friendly to the U.S.A. for having liberated Iraq from three decades
of horrific despotism, America’s military bases will allow it, as Friedman notes, to “dominate the area between the
Mediterranean and the Hindu Kush; it would control the pivot of Eurasia. This, along with absolute control of the seas,
would give the United States a global empire that was unprecedented in history.” The irony is, America has never wanted to
be an empire or an occupier.
So, on November 2, when you vote, you can choose to give up the one defense we really have, the ability to “encourage”
other nations to help track down and kill the individual members of al-Qa'ida, and to do so in their backyard, or to leave our
future to the tender mercies of a shadowy organization that wants to kill every last one of us.
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). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 28 West Third Street, Apartment 1321, South Orange, New Jersey, 07079.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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