His point, and the name of the article, is: On Iraq, It's Important to Ask the Right Questions.
There absolutely is no disputing the fact that Iraq is a mess. Horowitz correctly points out that the mayhem in Iraq is the disarray of the terrorist forces, which is good, and the war itself is the only language they understand.
Horowitz goes on to question whether Bin Laden is still alive and reminds us that the most important and destructive terrorist alive today is Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. And he’s in Iraq.
Let me sat that again – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is in Iraq. Always has been.
He wasn’t in Afghanistan, so no matter how long a war was waged in that country, al-Zarqawi would have been allowed to continue unfettered had the US and its allies not waged war on Iraq – specifically Saddam Hussein.
Horowitz paints a scenario that speaks to Kerry’s insistence that sanctions and UN inspectors would have ‘weakened’ Saddam Hussein and he – Kerry – would have been able to keep him under control.
If we had not invaded Iraq, Saddam Hussein would still be in power; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would be in command of an al-Qaeda army in northern Iraq; the UN’s, 17th resolution ordering Saddam to comply or else would have been successfully defied, the largest chemical weapons factory in the Third World, in Libya, would still be humming along with an advanced nuclear weapons plant (both now shut down). And what would the forces of terror – the Zarqawis and Zawahiris – be doing in the face of another toothless appeasement by the world community? That, of course, is the question that Saletan and Kerry – and those who agree with them – cannot answer.
A very salient point is this – the only reason Saddam Hussein let the UN inspectors back into Iraq was due to the fact that more than 200,000 troops were massing along the Iraq border – a decision that President Bush made in order to back up those toothless threats from the countless UN sanctions. Which, by the way, were voted on unanimously by the UN Security Council.
Yesterday we heard from the U.S. Iraq Survey Group that Saddam Hussein had used the U.N. oil-for-food program to buy influence at the United Nations.
According to the Washington Times, The report accused key officials — including former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and retired U.N. oil-for-food director Benon Sevan — of accepting oil vouchers, which could be exchanged secretly for cash.
Their reaction? Denial of course! The Times article explains what we already suspected: Some of the gravest accusations in the report by the U.S. Iraq Survey Group (ISG) are against senior French officials, including charges that they accepted payoffs to counterbalance U.S. power inside the sanctions committee on the U.N. Security Council.
And that was Hussein’s plan all along - divide and conquer. According to the key findings report, in July 2000 Saddam was claiming victory over UN sanctions, stating that Iraq was “accelerating its pace to develop its national security despite UN ‘blockades’.”
Those words were Saddam's boasts.
Kerry’s statements about this war being the “wrong war” only reinforce his naiveté or just plain ignorance of world politics. He is either choosing to ignore the facts or trying to paint a completely different picture to confuse the American people – all in the name of politics.
This might not be as egregious an act if Kerry were simply seeking reelection to his senatorial seat in Massachusetts, but this man is looking for our approval to appoint him Commander-in-Chief, able to make decisions regarding our national security.
One more point for consideration – John F Kerry has had access to much more detailed information than any of the sources I am referencing today. Kerry has sat on committees that are provided with sensitive information about all of this. He knows the threats that our country is facing, yet he continues to spout rhetoric that speaks against – and denounces - this President in a time of war.
Political ambition is one thing, but when you let that ambition get in the way of the security of a nation – that is a clear indicator of the character of the man who would be president. Anyone that is willing to compromise my security – my family’s security – for his personal gain is not worthy of even a second thought.
I’m going with the man that has stood up to the world and stated so clearly “My job is to protect the American people” – popularity and political ambition be damned. George W. Bush is the ONLY person qualified for the job of President of these United States of America.
