"Terrorism Wins. Let's All Go Home"

Posted by Emmanuel Parenteau
Sunday, June 22, 2003

Whether or not leftists realizes it, their stance on the war in Iraq echoes a somber mindset: ''Terrorism is stronger than freedom.” Content with wearing kid gloves, circling a mahogany U.N. diplomat’s table, and shaking hands with two-faced Arab representatives, leftists do not want to confront their enemies head on.

In a world of stonehearted and ultra-violent dictatorships, the richest and most powerful countries do not want to dirty their hands...or even break into a sweat. When the neo-conservative element of the United States finally initiated a forceful plan of action, it was met with scorn and pessimistic premonitions from the liberal strongholds of the West. ''We don’t want to fight, no matter what,'' was the clear and present motto.

Lacquered in pseudo-humanitarianism, the liberal plea for non-violence ignored the very real ugliness of radical Islam. September 11, 2001 was too far in the near past for their Nintendo/Marijuana-bred short-term memories to grasp. The size of the Atlantic is too big to fathom, and therefore felt like a safe buffer from the whirlwind of horror and death in the Middle East.

How much more will murderous, religious zeal have to escalate before a unified voice can be heard saying: '''This must stop, NOW''? The threat of terrorism is currently piggybacking on the limp wrist of the liberal West. Terror is no respecter of persons. It wears blinders and wants to move wherever and whenever it wants. It listens not to diplomacy and rhetoric. Although we must move with dutiful caution, we must also resist permanent hesitancy. The absence of either will be deadly.

Months of unsuccessfully begging a poker-faced U.N. Security Council to agree to action, proved beyond a reasonable doubt that a thick, rugged layer of inefficiency and gutless self-absorbance existed amongst European leadership. The call for further diplomatic trials fell on the deaf and stupefied ears of conservative Americans. Saddam Hussein had ridiculed such attempts in an eleven-year stalemate, during which he grew personally richer and insidiously more suspicious…and the West grew more anxious.

Unilateralism became of a four-letter word to describe a 40-plus-nation movement. The age-old stereotype of American insolence and arrogance was revived to color Bush’s incessant appeals to a U.N. Security Council that Bill Clinton totally ignored in Kosovo, Bosnia, Sudan, and Iraq. With the 9/11 scabs barely formed, the U.S. ''dared'' to be adamant in its call for a swift clean-up of the militant extremists brewing in the Middle East. Yet this minority Arab element had gridlocked the European chapters of the U.N. into a gyrating sleep walk. It became clear that no one was on board with the United States.

As the Bush administration rolled forward into Iraq, Saddam’s puppet world collapsed quickly. The ease of the conflict seemed to scream to us the obvious truth: why hadn’t this been done so long ago? Exuberance turned to frustration and confusion as Iraqis grumbled against U.S. occupation and felt the burden of a political vacuum. What had previously been predictions of high civilian casualties became assertions that Iraq was in rougher shape Post-Saddam. And a new leftist mantra was born. The labyrinth of obstacles now facing Bush’s cabinet has the U.N. wringing its hands and quietly wiping the egg off its face while reaching for a few grade-A’s themselves. The extended search for WMDs sits high on the throne of liberal media platforms, and the collection of ominous data from war-torn Iraq is a ripe field for cynical leftist reporters.

The new frustration for the Right is that the battle is finally moving into the arena of non-military diplomacy. Yet the Left, which had been sanctimoniously swearing that this was its specialty, is nowhere to be found. This is payback. And it is at the expense of the Iraqi people’s welfare. What exactly was this grievous insult launched at Europe, prompting a sinister passive-aggressive backlash? The American neo-conservative strategy was not to cowboy and lasso a new single-handed conquest while thumbing its nose at a weaker European vessel. It was a call to collective effort from the U.N. Bush, Powell, and Company danced many a day before France, Russia, and Germany, asking for a final deadline of their choosing for a 17th and final resolution. The extended hand of the U.S. was left hanging. The choice became continued failure in Iraq, or imposing long overdue Western justice--a justice agreed upon unanimously by way of 1441.

Force was the blunt instrument needed to crack the surface of Iraq’s outer-shell. Now its contents need to be handled with care. The Left had, and has, no interest in either task. This we can now be sure of. An institution, which truly cared for the Iraqi populace, would step in immediately, lifting obsolete sanctions and actively co-operating with efforts to re-stabilize a country with no history of democracy. Grudges against the U.S. would be on the back burner, creating safety and peace for the innocent civilians they cried so loudly for in pre-war times would be front and center. Finger pointing is the new U.N. sport, not nation building. What the U.N. abhors is unbalanced U.S. power. The display of this unprecedented dominance racks Europe with envy, no matter how justified its actions may be. True colors are starting to show through very vibrantly…

The question is, what would the geopolitical scene be like today, had the Left guided the process? The Iraqis would still have law enforcement. Yes, by a police agency acting out the sadistic whims of an utterly inhumane leader. Filling underground prisons with children and torture chambers with neutered males hanging on meat hooks. The Iraqis would still have government. Indeed. One in which opposition members could chose between a career change or watching their new born children smashed against cement walls, leaving brain matter to paint a clear picture of democracy in Saddam’s terms.

The leering, accusing posture of the Left hides an empty heart and mind--one which has NO strategies to diffuse the powder kegs of today. Opting to leave their children’s generation with these tasteless tasks and criticizing the only mobile and active element which opposes terrorism currently…