Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review April 16, 2002 / 5 Iyar, 5762

Michael Ledeen

Ledeen
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


It’s the war, stupid … someone remind Colin Powell


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The president ought to remind his secretary of state that we are at war, because Secretary Powell has had a very dangerous senior moment these past few weeks. He has forgotten the mission laid down so elegantly by W. last September, and again in the State of the Union: We will wage war against terrorists and those who harbor them until we have defeated them. The mission of this administration is to win that war.

In one of those confusions typical of people our age, Powell has instead noticed that other people are at war, and his real mission is to get them to stop. He may think it's an admirable mission, but it isn't the one he's supposed to be carrying out. Thus, the all-too-obvious confusion throughout the administration. And from confusion, as any good strategist will tell you, comes defeat.

Powell has fallen prey to several masters of confusion, those in many Middle East capitals, and those in his own building, to whom he has entrusted his policies and thus his reputation. Both are determined to slow and perhaps even stop America's war against terrorism, since neither has any idea how to wage and win it. So the secretary of state has sloshed back into the endless swamp of "peace process" and "shuttle diplomacy," and he is doomed to fail, as all his predecessors since Henry Kissinger failed. They all failed — and he will fail — because they thought they could "solve" the Israel/Arab "problem" by just talking it out and finding some clever scheme that would split all differences and find a way to make everyone happy.

It can't be done. All the skilled diplomats and all the deep thinkers have, from the very beginning, insisted on looking at the wrong problem. The Arab/Israeli matter is a small piece — say it again, a small piece — of a much broader conflict, in which we are directly involved.

That broader conflict is the latest battle between freedom and tyranny, and we only have two choices: We can win or lose. We cannot opt out, we cannot find clever solutions, we cannot invent brilliant schemes. It is simply win it or lose it. It's the war, stupid.

Arafat is but one of many petty tyrants who wish to extinguish freedom in the Middle East. He is but one element in the terror network against which we declared war following their attack against us on September 11. That network, once proclaimed to be so shadowy that it would require an entirely new kind of war to thwart its evil designs, is now crystal clear. Its fighting men and women are enlisted in the PLO, Fatah, Hizbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, al Qaeda and their lesser formations. Its commanders are the terror masters in Baghdad, Damascus and Tehran. Their ideologues and financiers range from Riyadh to the Gulf States. They all saw what happened in Afghanistan, and trembled.

Unable to mount an effective counteroffensive, they stalled for time, tempting us with a variety of "peace" plans and processes, lecturing us that we could not possibly continue the war until we had dealt with the Israelis and the Palestinians, hoping we would fall for it.

We did fall for it, and in falling for it lost our focus. The question is whether the president will reassert the mission and refocus his war cabinet.

It should not be hard, if he has the will. There will be innumerable excuses to call off the Powell exercise and bring home the secretary. It does not much matter, frankly, if this is blamed on Arafat or Sharon, the important thing is to get our bearings firmly fixed. To all those who demand that we get involved in the Israel/Arab morass, the president should simply say, "we're going to win the war first, and then look at it again."

That is the bottom line, from which there is no successful escape. For if we destroy the tyrannies in Iran, Iraq, and Syria, and compel the Saudis to stop funding the global network of murderous Wahhabi schools and mosques that is the assembly line of terrorism, then the Israel/Arab question will look entirely different, both to us and to the combatants.

Deprived of weapons, ammunition, intelligence, and guidance from the terror masters, the Palestinians will suddenly find themselves able to choose their own destiny. And then we can ask them a simple question: What do you really want? They cannot answer it truthfully today, because they are likely to be killed if their tyrannical masters were to hear them say, "I want to be a free person in a normal state." They can only answer it truthfully if freedom is a real option.

And freedom is what America is supposed to be all about. Tell the secretary of state: We are fighting a war for freedom. Stop playing into the hands of the tyrants. It's unworthy of a great democratic power.



JWR contributor Michael Ledeen is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Tocqueville on American Character . Comment by clicking here.

Up

04/08/02: Gulled: In the Middle East, Arafat doesn't matter
04/02/02: Faster, Please: The war falters
03/26/02: The Revolution Continues: What's brewing in Iran
03/18/02: Iran simmers still: Where's the press?
03/05/02: We can't lose any more ground in Iran
02/14/02: The Great Iranian Hoax
02/12/02: Unnoticed Bombshell: Key information in a new book
01/31/02: The truth behind the Powell play
01/29/02: My past with "Johnny Jihad's" lawyer
01/21/02: It's Munich, all over again
01/08/02: What's the Holdup?: It's time for the next battles in the war against terrorism
12/11/01: We must be imperious, ruthless, and relentless
12/06/01: Remembering my family friend, Walt Disney
11/28/01: The Barbara Olson Bomb: Understanding the war
11/13/01: How We're Doing: The Angleton Files, IV
11/06/01: A great revolutionary war is coming
10/25/01: How to talk to a terrorist
10/23/01: Creative Reporting: Learning to appreciate press briefings
10/19/01: Not the Emmys: A Beltway award presentation
10/15/01: Rediscovering American character
10/11/01: Somehow, I've missed Arafat's praise of the first stage of our war on terrorism
10/04/01: What do we not know?
09/28/01: Machiavelli On Our War: Some advice for our leaders
09/25/01: No Room for the U.N.: Keeping Annan & co. out of the picture
09/21/01: Creative destruction
09/14/01: Who Killed Barbara Olson?
08/22/01: How Israel will win this war
08/15/01: Bracing for war
08/09/01: More Dithering Democrats
08/02/01: Delirious Dems
07/31/01: Consulting a legendary counterspy about Chandra and Condit, cont'd
07/19/01: Be careful what you wish for
07/17/01: Consulting a legendary counterspy about Chandra and Condit
07/05/01: Let Slobo Go
05/30/01: Anybody out there afraid of the Republicans?
05/09/01: The bad guys to the rescue
05/07/01: Bye-bye, Blumenthal
04/20/01: Handling China
04/11/01: EXAM TIME!
04/05/01: Chinese over-water torture
03/27/01: Fighting AIDS in Africa is a losing proposition
03/14/01: Big Bird, Oscar, and other threats
03/09/01: Time for a good, old-fashioned purge
03/06/01: Powell’s great (mis)adventure
02/26/01: The Clinton Sopranos
02/20/01: Unity Schmoonity: Sharon is defying the will of the people
01/30/01: The Rest of the Rich Story
01/22/01: Ashcroft the Jew
01/11/01: A fitting close to the Clinton years
12/26/00: Continuing Clinton's shameful legacy
12/21/00: Clinton’s gift for Bush

© 2001, Michael Ledeen