Jewish World Review April 8, 2002 / 27 Nisan, 5762

Jack Kelly

Jack Kelly
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Saddam's American friends


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Should we fight Saddam Hussein now? Or should we wait until after he attacks us with nuclear weapons and kills millions of Americans? This is, astoundingly, an agonizing question for many liberals.

Saddam is an evil mean nasty rotten guy who hates us with a purple passion. He is trying as fast as he can to build nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and ballistic missiles to deliver them. Once he has acquired these weapons, he almost certainly will use them against us, either directly, or through proxies like Al Qaeda.

For the ordinary American, this is reason enough to take Saddam out now. But liberals wring their hands at the prospect. They raise four objections: It might be difficult Most military experts think it would be easier to defeat Saddam now than it was ten years ago during the Gulf War, when it wasn't all that tough. His forces are much weaker now, our air forces are much stronger, and morale in the Iraqi army is reported to be at rock bottom. But however easy or hard it would be to remove Saddam from power, it won't be easier after he has acquired nuclear weapons than it is now.

It'll make the Arabs mad at us. Millions of people throughout the Muslim world celebrated the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Arab "street" already hates us. Since their hatred is irrational, there is little we can do to make them like us more. But we can make them fear us.

The Europeans won't like it . So what? Not only can we defeat Iraq without any European help, only Britain - which is on board - is even capable of providing help. Thumbing our noses at the opinions of European leaders hoping to make side deals with Axis of Evil nations may cause us some diplomatic headaches down the road. But the pain will be nothing like the pain we'd suffer if a nuclear device were exploded in the United States.

There is no clear proof Saddam played a role in the Sept. 11 attacks. There doesn't have to be. We've had for years a legal justification for resuming hostilities with Iraq. The Gulf War ended with a truce, the terms of which Saddam repeatedly has violated. And there is plenty of evidence to indicate Saddam has been waging nonstop war against us since the Gulf War ended:

  • Laurie Mylroie, editor of Iraq News, makes a persuasive case that Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was an Iraqi intelligence agent. Among those who agree with her is R. James Woolsey, President Clinton's first CIA director.

  • It is well established that Saddam was behind an attempt to assassinate former President Bush in 1994.

  • Jayna Davis, an investigative reporter in Oklahoma City, has uncovered evidence of Iraqi involvement in the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building. When Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for his role in the bombing, was captured, he had on his person several Iraqi telephone numbers.

    Davis obtained affidavits from several witnesses claiming to have seen McVeigh in the company of a "Middle Eastern-looking person" who resembled the sketch of John Doe Number Two. Hussein al-Husseini, a former Iraqi soldier, sued Davis for libel, but the suit was dismissed. U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard ruled all the facts in Davis' broadcasts either were true, or were statements of opinion which did not libel the plaintiff.

    An Iraqi connection could explain the frequent trips to the Philippines of McVeigh confederate Terry Nichols, where his path apparently crossed with that of Ramzi Yousef; how McVeigh and Nichols, who had no visible means of support, acquired the money to carry out the bombing; and how they acquired the expertise to build their bomb, which was very like the explosive used at the World Trade Center the year before.

  • The Czech intelligence service has reported that Mohammed Atta, leader of the hijackers on 9/11, met at least twice in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer.

  • In a powerful article in the New Yorker, Jeffrey Goldberg describes the involvement of both Iraqi intelligence and Al Qaeda in creation of a Kurdish terrorist group, Ansar al-Islam.

We don't need more evidence to prove Saddam Hussein's regime is a clear and present danger to the United States. What we need is the resolve to do something about it.



Comment on JWR contributor Jack Kelly's column by clicking here.

04/05/02:Arab winners and sinners
04/01/02: Why is the commander of U.S. Central Command not coming clean to the American people?
03/31/02: Dubya under attack … by conservatives
03/26/02: Saddam watch coming to an end?
03/21/02: Get the Jews!
03/19/02: It's time pols and gov bureaucrats be held to the same standard of accountability we insist for corporate execs
03/15/02: Khaki Throat
03/12/02: Making foreign cheaters pay
03/08/02: Timidity and indecision by senior American commanders
03/04/02: Why 9-11? Ex-CIA officials come clean
02/25/02: Don't rule out a quick victory --- even if prez says otherwise
02/21/02: Saving our military from itself
02/19/02: Front Page fiction
02/15/02: Our European allies are like the fat kid who wants to play quarterback
02/13/02: Is the Army in danger of becoming "irrelevant"?
02/11/02: So, I "propagate hatred" …
02/06/02: Bush whacking the media
02/04/02: Why serious folks disregard the European Union --- and why Bush must, too
01/30/02: Give economy pneumonia in order to protect it from a cold
01/28/02: Media is its own worst enemy
01/25/02: Journalists making road to peace a bumpy ride, or: A case study in stupidity
01/23/02: Toward a stronger defense at a lower cost
01/21/02: How Bush could be Generations X and Y's Kennedy ... and guarantee a GOP victory in the midterm elections

© 2002, Jack Kelly