First Things First

An Iraqi caught with a bomb in Kabul. The Iraqis pay suicide bombers who kill Israelis. Clearly, Saddam is desperate to bolster those over here who claim that yes, they really are behind the war on terror, but first we must solve the Palestinian problem. Or first we have to rebuild and completely pacify Afghanistan. Or first…something, anything, rather than admit that Iraq is a clear and imminent danger. Since these people argue that Iraq should be dealt with after something else, clearly they see Iraq as a threat—unless they are being less than honest.

Of course, insistence that other things must come first ensures that those second in line (the Tikritis of Iraq, just as an example) have all the motive in the world to make sure those “first” things never get solved. Keep the pots boiling and you are safe. The more basic problem is that it falsely assumes we can’t fight both Iraq and al Qaeda at the same time, while forging ahead to do something on the Israel-Palestine issue. If we can’t fight both Iraq and al Qaeda as some suggest, the correct response—since defeating both is critical to our security—is to expand our military, intelligence, and security forces sufficiently to fight both at the same time. You won’t hear opponents of fighting Iraq “now, at this very moment” making that argument.

A Berkeley gathering actually descends to new lows of public debate on the issue of war against Iraq. This use of children to promote their parents’ anti-war with Iraq ideology is disgusting. They get their children to spout anti-war slogans that they don’t even understand (both parents and children, actually, now that I think about it). So how do you argue against these little children to counter the propaganda? You can’t, of course. The children are innocent human shields for cowardly parents. The children have an excuse for not understanding that very evil people want to kill us—and have in large numbers. Yes, as the sign held by one child says, “War hurts children.” The orphans of dead from the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the Cole, the African embassies, the Beirut Barracks, the Saudi Arabia barracks, the Iraqi anti-Kurdish pogroms and assaults against the Shias of the south, the still-missing 500 kidnapped Kuwaitis who disappeared in 1990, all know that war hurts children. Clearly, it is only when we fight back that the protesters (and I mean the adults, obviously) get upset.

Can they truly look their small children in their eyes and tell them that mommy and daddy are only upset when the children of our enemies suffer? Will they explain that our orphans deserve no sympathy and that we cannot fight to prevent more orphans from suffering? Will they explain that tyranny hurts children, as this article about the hardships that widows of killed Iraqi men have endured trying to provide for their children? Will the Berkeley parents explain that “peace” has led to this and that war is the only way to end it?

Will they explain to little Celia that she “deserves it” when Islamofascists come here to kill mommy? Or her?

Skyler will of course understand should he be maimed and lose a couple limbs if we stand aside, as mom says we should, and terrorists bring bus bombings to California.

Don’t worry little Noah, grown ups wearing BDUs will defend you. Some will even die, leaving their own children without a mom or dad, so your mother and father can safely call them evil baby killers. One has to fight back tears of outrage that small children could be used so cynically.

Truly, it takes a Berkeley village to screw up a child.

On to Baghdad.