BCT Editorial – 9/22/04

This page was last updated on September 24, 2004.

No more illusions; Editorial; Beaver County Times; September 22, 2004.

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict the Times will eventually endorse Sen. John Kerry for president.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“When U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel speak, people should listen.

“And not because these two high-ranking Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are questioning the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq.

“No, people should listen because both men have stellar reputations when it comes to their grasp of foreign affairs. Both are known for being well-informed [sic] and nonpartisan in regard to foreign affairs. (The same goes for U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the committee.)”

[RWC] Does anyone believe the Times would tell us to listen to Sens. Hagel and Lugar if they had said something positive? In that case, the editorial would have presented them as partisan hacks.

“Hagel said a proposal to divert $3.46 billion in reconstruction funds to beef up security in Iraq ‘does not add up, in my opinion, to a pretty picture - to a picture that shows that we’re winning. But it does add up to this: an acknowledgement that we are in deep trouble.’

“Lugar was equally critical. Knight Ridder Newspapers report he said the bloodshed has exposed as ‘nonsense’ the assurances that ‘blithely optimistic’ administration officials gave the committee before last year’s invasion that U.S. troops would be welcome in Iraq and would be there only a short time.”

[RWC] Our troops are welcome in Iraq by the vast majority of Iraqis. That said, no one wants a foreign force on its soil, even one there to help. If the majority of Iraqis didn’t want our help in Iraq, we would have been defeated a long time ago.

“Lugar makes an important point. Lost in all the argument over missing WMDs and solid links between Iraq and al Qaida is the administration’s total failure to plan for how the United States would handle post-war Iraq. That failure to plan, which was something that it could control, is why so many of our troops are dying in Iraq today, and why more will do so tomorrow.”

[RWC] No one has said what’s going on Iraq is rosy. It’s difficult and terrorists are killing a lot of people. Despite the killing, however, there is progress. How else do you explain the fact that men keep signing up in large numbers for the Iraqi army and police despite being primary targets of the terrorists? Making slow and steady progress doesn’t mean some mistakes won’t be made and lives won’t be lost. It’s easier for me to say because I’m not there, but the statement is true nonetheless.

The Times and other Democrat mouthpieces constantly claim there was no plan for post-war Iraq. When will they present evidence? The fact that everything is not rosy is not proof there was no plan. In fact, the undeniable progress is evidence of planning, unless you want to believe that everything good that has happened was by accident. No post-war periods have been without their problems and the most meticulous planning in the world doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing. Believe it or not, life is not like a “Mission: Impossible” episode.

“We repeat what we have written before. Find a January/February issue of The Atlantic Monthly and read ‘Blind into Baghdad’ by James Fallows - and remember that he was doing his reporting and writing well before the security meltdown in Iraq accelerated. Fallows showed this administration failed time and time against to heed advice on how the United States could best prepare itself to deal with Iraq after the ousting of Saddam.

“While you’re at it, check out the latest Atlantic Monthly. In ‘Bush’s Lost Year,’ Fallows makes a good case that the war in Iraq has set back the fight against radical Islamists and made the United States less safe.”

[RWC] While the Times repeats what it said before, so will I. When I critiqued “Long haul,” I wrote, “The editorial failed to note Mr. Fallows is a close friend of Ralph Nader and a Gore supporter. I do not say his ideology affected his story, but disclosure is always nice.”

“But the damage doesn’t stop there. Our military is being ground up in Iraq in terms of troops and hardware. A first-class fighting machine is being misused, not by the troops in the field, but by the politicians who sent them there.

[RWC] This is a nice Democrat talking point, but where is the proof? It’s true our troops are in country more than we would like, but that is a long way from being “ground up.”

“One final, bleak point to consider: The illusion of power is as important as power itself. The United States didn’t have to use its power to get what it wanted. As the world’s only superpower, it could use the illusion of power to make other nations get in line.”

[RWC] Power is not an illusion. You have it or you don’t. Power is useful only when your enemies believe you will use it. We got into wars with Iraq twice because Saddam Hussein didn’t believe we would use our power.

We need to remember most of our enemies are not stupid. They can tell the difference between someone who will use power and someone who will only threaten to use power. Hussein is a case in which sending the wrong signals over a long period of time led an enemy to draw disastrous conclusions. The same can be said for al-Qaida.

“But when power is used ineffectively, as is happening in Iraq, the illusion vanishes. After Iraq, the world will have no illusions about our military might. The consequences of this will be enormous. Don’t think Iran and North Korea haven’t noticed.”

[RWC] In addition to Iran and North Korea, Libya noticed. Does anyone seriously believe our resolute actions in Afghanistan and Iraq had nothing to do with Col. Qaddafi coming clean and dismantling his biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons programs in late 2003?

There’s one last point the editorial forgot to mention. Despite their criticism, Sens. Hagel and Lugar both strongly support President Bush for re-election. As the editorial said, “When U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and Chuck Hagel speak, people should listen.”