Murdoc Online got me thinking about this: We often hear we had to fight Germany after Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor because Germany then declared war on the United States.
Germany didn’t attack us. Germany declared war on us. That was enough to justify the invasions of Northern Africa, France, Belgium and Germany. Only later did we discover the Holocaust, which alone was justification for regime change. (And we said “Never again.”)
How does this apply to Iraq today?
Saddam signs cease-fire. In the case of the Iraq war, after Saddam Hussein sent his army to rape and murder its way through Kuwait in 1990, he saved himself from regime change in 1991 by entering into a cease-fire agreement with the United States. The cease-fire was enshrined in more than a dozen U.N. resolutions. Then Saddam proceeded to violate every one of those resolutions.
Saddam repeatedly violated Resolution 688, which required he stop repressing and otherwise mistreating the Iraqi people. Two hundred thousand executions, countless tortures and the total denial of the freedom to dissent are only part of his violations of that order.
Saddam violated the resolutions barring support of terrorist groups. There were the three Abu’s he harbored (Nidal, Abbas and Zarqawi), and the cash he paid to Israeli-killing suicide bombers’ families. He violated the resolutions that required he return 600 Kuwaiti POWs, and one American POW. We assume most of the 601 were murdered. He violated the resolutions on sanctions and the Oil-for-Food program, siphoning Iraqi oil money for himself and depriving starving and sick Iraqis of food and medicine. And he violated the many resolutions requiring that he prove he had destroyed his weapons of mass destruction. (There was no resolution requiring anyone to prove he had WMDs.)
Saddam abandons cease-fire. Saddam’s violations weren’t simply international lawlessness. They were violations of a cease-fire with the United States. In other words, each time Saddam broke one of these cease-fire conditions, he was declaring war on the United States.
When a fascist dictator declares war, take him seriously, take him out, and replace him with democracy. History proves that’s the only response that produces a lasting peace.
Frank Warner
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