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Ally or Adversary?
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
In Tuesday's Washington Post, reporter Peter Slevin recounted a meeting between the French Ambassador to the US and Vice President Dick Cheney during the run-up to the Iraq war. Cheney asked the Ambassador, "Is France an ally or an adversary of the United States?
This is a long, LONG way from the top-is-bottom, back-is-front, left-is-right use of language which is standard communication among the Diplomatic Corps.
The French Ambassador, according to Slevin's piece, was "stunned by Cheney's directness."
Americans were stunned - and remain astounded - by France's treachery.
President Bush went to the United Nations yesterday and drew a clear line in the sand: "between those who seek order, and those who spread chaos; between those who work for peaceful change, and those who adopt the methods of gangsters; between those who honor the rights of man, and those who deliberately take the lives of men and women and children without mercy or shame."
"Between these alternatives," he said, "there is no neutral ground," and he reminded the delegates that since the attacks upon the United States in 2001, "terrorists have struck in Bali, Mombassa, in Casablanca, in Riyadh, in Jakarta, [and] in Jerusalem."
Allies or Adversaries.
The crux of the speech of course, was about Iraq. The President, using diplomatic language, reminded the delegates that the US did the job for all of them by removing Saddam resulting in "the torture chambers, and the rape rooms, and the prison cells for innocent children -- are closed. And as we discover the killing fields and mass graves of Iraq, the true scale of Saddam's cruelty is being revealed."
The central questions for the UN - and those whose criticism of the President becomes harsher and more strident in the pursuit of their own aims and goals - is this: Are the Iraqi people better off or worse off without Saddam Hussein? Is the world a safer place or a more dangerous place without Saddam Hussein?
The President's domestic and foreign opponents should be asked that question. The Democrats running for their party's nomination should be asked: Are the Iraqi people facing the prospect of a better future or a worse future since American did the right thing and removed Saddam from power.
The time interval between the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and D-Day (June 6, 1944) was two years, seven months. The war didn't end on D-Day. VE-Day (May 8, 1945) was nearly another year after D-Day; VJ-Day (August 6, 1945) was three months later still and required the detonation of two atomic bombs.
From Pearl Harbor to the surrender of Japan - nearly four years. And virtually nothing else was going on in the world except the war. Travel was restricted or forbidden completely; almost the totality of US industrial output was devoted to war materiel (as an example, there were no private cars manufactured in the US during World War II).
In 2003, commerce is normal; trade is normal; travel is normal; communications are normal; even politics is normal.
The President reminded the delegates at the United Nations that the world is still at war. The battle lines are not as easily displayed on a map as they were during World War II, but the battle lines are drawn. The battle lines are real.
Every country - every person - has to make the choice:
Ally or Adversary.
A few words on the California recall decision: The 11-judge panel heard the case Monday and announced its decision yesterday that the election will be held, as scheduled, on October 7. The court, thus, overruled its own three-judge panel by an 11-0 vote.
When your neighbor complains about Republicans trying to alter the results of an election you can tell them that the make-up of that panel was eight Democrats and three Republicans.
On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the text of the President's speech, short bios of each of the judges on the 9th Circuit Court (including who appointed them) and the usual things.
--END --
Copyright © 2003 Richard A. Galen
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