Back to Gaffer's Archives.
World War Three, Part 2:
August 12, 2002:
Last week I finishes with this thought. If I am not interrupted,
I will carry on with this theme, next week. In the meantime I
will hope that our government does not go completely insane and
start a premature ill-advised war with Iraq. More on this next
time.
Now, I can continue by making clear my thoughts about Iraq. I agree with the administration that we must eventually deal with Iraq. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I am still convinced that the weapons grade Anthrax which was used against the United States came from there. However, we have yet to prove that, because our law enforcement community wants to convict someone who is easy. Until we have evidence against Iraq, the international community will not support an invasion. Cleaning up dad's unfinished business is not a good enough reason.
We should also notice some differences in our various enemies. Saddam Hussein is not an insane terrorist like Bin Laden. He is an imperialist. His goals are conquest and power. Bin Laden and Al-Qaida are not his ally. They have different goals. Hussein does not want to destroy civilization. He wants power over it. His immediate goal is power over his neighbors, but he learned a lesson in the Gulf War. This man is not stupid. Like Stalin, he will strut and poster and rattle sabers, but that is for home consumption. It has nothing to do with reality. He will not act again until he can be sure of success.
So, let's not start a war with Iraq until we finish with Afghanistan. We need not go after them until they give us justification. Sooner or late they will, but we can choose the time. Our best hope is to set one goal at a time and complete it. One goal should be to establish a military governorship in Afghanistan. Call it a protectorate if you like. Some third world savage leaders will no doubt call it imperialism. That is a tired old dodge to cover what they are doing. I simply suggest that Afghanistan come into the twenty first century. I will insist that the best way to destroy savagery is to civilize it.
We are still taking halfway measures in Afghanistan. We are rebuilding a bandit government. We are putting back in charge, a government which failed and allowed a Taliban coup tat. I do not object to helping the Afghani people. I object to us not being in charge so we can do it effectively. I object to a bandit chief being in charge. I object to us cooperating with a person like that. The entire country side is still in chaos. Criminals are still based there and operate out of there. The government we have put in place will never change that.
The worst thing is that we are training and arming a military who will eventually fight against us. This is a simple minded thing. Those weapons will eventually find their way into the hands of our enemies. How many times must we do that to realize that arming savages is insane? How many times will we have to fight against our own weapons to understand? I remember when we occupied Japan. We would not allow them to have a military or weapons, even after they established a democracy. We should do the same thing in Afghanistan.
We need to move into Afghanistan and take over. We need to very clearly tell the bandit chiefs that they have not done the job and are being replaced. We need to install a military governor. So long as we leave primitive bandit chiefs in charge the criminals will continue to operate there. We need a disciplined force large enough to maintain law and order. It must remain in place until those people are well on their way to being civilized. This is a long term investment in our own defense. It could possibly mean two decades of occupation. In the meantime, as we stabilize the place we can gradually reduce our forces. We need not start a war with anyone else until that process is well under way. Of course, we will eventually have to destroy these savages everywhere. That will take time, but it must be done.
As I have previously indicated, to fight this war we must mobilize. We need to quit making toys and luxury items and start building a war machine. We need a war machine which can cover the globe. We need to finish with Afghanistan first, but that is just the first, not the only, target. We must eventually occupy anyplace that terrorists can hide. That probably means the entire third world. For sure it includes Iraq and Libya, but one target at a time. Let's not start more brush fires than we can cover. We need to finish our main enemy first.
As to manpower, we must rebuild our armed forces. We are woefully behind in that. I am sure we will need a full scale draft. Also, we should get the punks off of the streets and put them in the army. If they want to fight, teach them how to do it efficiently. Then send them to fight the biggest turf war of their pitiful little careers. Let them go and fight terrorists. Teach them how to fight the bad people instead of each other. And, let's put a GI bill in place to provide funds so they can educate themselves later.
Now, about allies. In this war, it is very important to get clear on who our allies are. Our government has a terrible habit of confusing our short term allies with our long time friends. I define an ally as someone with whom we can cooperate in achieving a common goal. In this case, the goals is the defense of the civilized world. Thus, the only allies we can count on are some of the nations of the civilized world.
By civilized, I mean countries with some kind of representative democracy. I do not consider countries ruled by a monarch or a ruling class to be civilized. The most dependable of the civilized nations will be our long time friends. The ones I am sure of are Great Brittan, Canada, and Australia. I'm also quite sure that Germany and Japan can be counted on. Most others are iffy or too weak to help.
Some will pretend to be our allies so long as they can gain through the relationship, but they are not particularly interested in defending civilization. Realize that I am talking about the governments and not the citizenry. For example, Saudi Arabia is not civilized and is not our friend. They are an occasional reluctant ally because it is in their own best interest, but the help is lukewarm and half hearted at best. This is true of all middle eastern countries. I continue to insist that any country ruled by a monarch is not civilized.
Democracy means civilization. At the present time, Democracy is the ultimate civilization. Civilization is a natural outgrowth of democracy. Some of these savage nations pretend to be civilized by accumulating the trappings of civilization. This simply demonstrates their simple minded lack of understanding. Civilization is not about the trappings, it is about behavior. These savages have none of the behaviors of civilized people. As to the trappings, wealth is another natural byproduct of democracy. A free people are naturally creative. That is why America is wealthy. The source of that wealth has nothing to do with slimy con men like Ken Lay. It has to do with productive creative people.
Right now, democracy and civilization are under siege and we are miserably unprepared. This is World War Three. I think we ought to start acting like it. You don't win a world war by beating up on your citizens. The way to prosecute a war is to carry it to your enemies homes. You go after their bases. You take away their hidey-holes. You destroy their safe havens. You give them nowhere to operate from. Their homes are not in America. We must mobilize in the same way we did for the prosecution of World War Two. This means sacrifice and cooperation by every American.
This may be the war to end all wars, because, the way our leaders are prosecuting it, America may disintegrate. I am an old timer. I remember what it was like in the forties. There was no hedonism encouraged by a inept president. We had a decisive man who said, tighten your belts folks. It's going to be a tough ride. We did just that and everyone took part. Everyone sacrificed. We went after our enemies in their strongholds and homelands and we destroyed their will to fight.
Is there anyone who thinks this is less serious than World War Two? For God's sake, this is the first time that the American homeland has been penetrated since First Marquess, Charles Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781. This is World War Three and we are losing. We have an attorney general who is beating up on Americans and a president who does not know what to do. We desperately need leadership.
I have much more to say on these issues so I will finish with
the same words I used last time. If I am not interrupted, I will
carry on with this theme, next week. In the meantime I will hope
that our government does not go completely insane and start a
premature ill-advised war with Iraq.
Back to Gaffer's Archives.
|
|
|
|