Going It Alone
posted in General |GOING IT ALONE
I am convinced that george Bush means business. As he watches the military buildup in the Gulf area, Saddam Hussein thinks so too. More importantly, our ambivalent friends in the UN also think so. Their problem is finding a way to persuade George to back off. If they cannot dissuade George, the only alternative is to buy time. That's what the inspector program will do. Once the inspectors are on site and looking for Nuke, Bio or Chemo weapons we are not apt to pull the pin. And Saddam will have his best wish granted – time to play hide and seek and slowly erode the resolve of the UN crowd. The UN folks want to buy time and so does Saddam. Don't hold your breath waiting for a UN recommendation to “go get him”.
It particularly galls me to subject our actions to the lily-livered French whose miltary history is a long sequence of spectacular defeats from Napoeon's retreat from Moscow, Waterloo, the Franco Prussian war, the failure of the Maginot Line in WWI, the WWII “pitiful 14 days” in 1941, Dien Bien Phu in Indo-China, and Algeria. Twice we have sent thousands of Americans to save their country when they couldn't do it themselves. I wonder what they would do if the Ragheads blew up the Eiffel Tower? When it comes to the French, I am reminded of that tongue in cheek WWII slogan for selling used French or Italian war rifles, “Never been fired, only dropped once”.
It is easy to be a big time diplomat and compromiser when you are not the target. Right now we are the target, and good words are not likely to suffice. So the Arabs might get mad at us. Many of them already are. I would like to feel optimistic about the UN resolutions, but I'm not. If we take out Saddam, we will likely have to go it alone.
Just be happy that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are not in the White House!!