The Dangers of Political Fear

Everyone knows how faulty the situation was with intelligence and heated decisions in the days preceding the invasion of Iraq. America was still lusting for blood, especially since it had yet to capture the mastermind behind 9/11, and was hungry to kill something else.

Saddam Hussein was a perfectly legitimate target. He should have been taken out. While better planning should have occured, with a broader swath of intellectual opinion on possible outcomes accompanying those decisions, they didn't.

The clincher in all of this, however, is that people decry that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. That's only partly right, as the network of terrorism does stretch throughout the Middle East, though attacking such targets may have only been undertaken by someone with the balls Osama Bin Laden obviously has.

I imagine, though, that the American people would have been more satisfied if President Bush had had a different standpoint on his invasion of Iraq, including a speech that may have gone something a bit more like this ...

My fellow Americans,

Today, American forces continue to scour the face of Afghanistan in search of the murderous radical terrorist Osama Bin Laden. We have not found him yet, but we will. The atroctities he incited from the September 11 attacks were tragic and abhorring. The young men and women of our great nation seek retribution for the blood spilt by Bin Laden and the crazed men who have served him, and are out there, destroying the Taliban and all who support it.

I come to you now, however, to discuss a new matter. While we yet scour Afghanistan, another, even more dangerous threat, looms at our doorsteps. This danger comes with threats of sponsoring further terrorism against the world, as we can already prove it has done within its own borders.

Saddam Hussein, in power for many years, has continually defied the greater world powers in nuclear armament and crimes against humanity, systematically slaughtering his own people time after time indiscriminately. We know what he has done. We know what he can do, and what he is willing to do.

Soon I will be sending more of our troops to invade a hostile country bent on our destruction. This is pre-emptive against a nation known for its state sponsoring of terrorism. We will do what wasn't done before - we will eliminate the threat on their ground, before it can come here again.

As a nation of freedom, to turn out heads from the threat this government poses to itself and those around it would be a tragedy of free thought and moral decency. Some of our young men and women will lose their lives, but the cost of freedom is never free, and to turn a blind eye to the tyranny here presents an evil greater than anything - the evil of apathy.

With your support, we can do what must be done as quickly as possible, but it will not be a short fight. What we do will be a long, hard road to walk, but in learning from our mistakes in Vietnam, we will not leave brothers behind, American or foreigner, and we will establish a hope of democracy and peace.

September 11th will never be forgotten, and should never be repeated.

Thank you, good night, and God Bless America.

We failed in Afghanistan. That should have been priority one, and I won't debate that. My point, however, is that President Bush would have been better off with the planned invasion of Iraq if he had 1) been blunt about the simple reasons we needed to go in and 2) taken more time to develop a proper strategy.

Iraq needed to be cut up, pure and simple. How, is a debate I don't have for you right now. I would leave that up to more intelligent strategists. But it was a danger and needed to be dealt with. Who can say if waiting would have been better? Patience is always a virtue, but we're beyond such discussions. We're there, now.

We need to finish the fight and finish it right, not just turn tail and run, leaving another post-Vietnam with killing fields. If we do, blood will certainly be on our hands.

It's time we owned up, turned blunt and did our moral and civic duty to the people of Iraq by finishing our mission, and then go home.

So what are the dangers of political fear? Soft resolve by your supporters. When leaders say what they mean, do what they say and demand the respect due for their solidity of choice, the public can't complain and will less prone to do so often. It's a matter of stark honesty about decisions and the steely resolve to live up to them.

And remember. It is OUR fault, we the American public, that the fiasco's continue today, because we're afraid to hear the truth, and don't demand our politicians to have balls.

Johnathan Cross
Marietta