When faced with a plan, those who are determined to undermine it, whatever the cost, will bitch about the details, find all the reasons it can't work and then drag their feet in hopes to derail it.

Sound familiar?  If you have children it should.  Or if you watch our Congress it should.  In fact, it wouldn't be the first time someone compared the U.S. Congress to children.  That started with the first President and continues today.

The issue in this case is President George W. Bush's plan to take on Terrorism -- a task at least five Presidents haven't had the guts to do before now. Of course G.W. has some real support from the American people on the issue, something those other five Presidents didn't have in the bank.  9/11 made it clear to a lazy American public that something should be done.

Congress, of course, as well as most of the liberal nit pickers in the media, have trotted out all their little whines, moans, and groans, and continue to drag their feet on terrorism insurance and the homeland security department.

But one of the most glaring mistakes the whining set has made seems to get little attention.  Let us walk you through this one...

When the President announced that Iraq, Iran and North Korea made up an axis of evil, the liberal elements in our nation went absolutely nuts for about two weeks.  How dare the President label these countries with such inflammatory rhetoric.  Why North Korea has been so nice lately.  They've signed the NPT, agreed to discontinue a nuclear weapons program and at least two other good-ol boy activities that show they are fine, upstanding members of the world community.

And Iraq, with their moderate elements gaining strength slowly, should not be accused of being unfriendly let alone evil!  Surely you jest Mr. President.

Shaking their heads in wonder, they trotted out names like Sudan or Syria.

And when the President continued his pressure on Iraq to disarm, threatening military action if Iraq did not comply with more than 16 resolutions, what's the first thing out of the whiner's mouths?  Well what about North Korea or Iran -- aren't they more dangerous?

We at MILNET respond, "they are dangerous.  And maybe they will be next. That's why they are on the list, get it stupid?"

The list, it seems, is something liberal mind sets don't like.  It invokes images of a plan.  And no one but liberals can have a plan you see.  Conservatives have "hit lists", or "black lists" conjuring up the necessary pejorative liberals love to apply to conservative planning.

What they fail to see is that the plan is very simple.  You list those countries you have prioritized as needing correction -- like children, you start with the troublemakers.  You list them in order - Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.  Then you start with the worst of the lot -- that's your first priority Mr. liberal.  Then you put on the pressure.  How do you pressure the Iraqi regime? Well it's pretty damn clear tossing resolutions at them does absolutely no good.  Our friends at the United Nations have been doing that for over 11 years now with absolutely no results.

So our President does something no liberal President has done in the history of our country save Delanor Roosevelt.  G.W. got tough.  He said, "disarm number one bad guy, or we're going to kick your fanny out of there."  And of course Saddam Hussein thumbed his nose.  Then G.W. flew over to the U.N., and stood them up and gave them a polite tongue lashing, "Do your job you petty diplomats or I'll do it for you."  They're still arguing about that today.  If your life and security depended upon the U.N. you could kiss your fanny good-bye -- we all know that, but the liberals can never admit it -- debating is so much more preferable to action -- why we'd even allow our national security to take a back seat to a good debate in the U.N.!

So then our President came back to Congress and said, "Okay ladies and gentlemen, I've prodded the diplomats.  We'll let them take their best shot.  But if that doesn't work, I'm gonna go over and start kicking Saddam out.  You on board?"

The Congress took weeks to wrangle about, huffing about how Congress declares war, and how Presidents must ask for permission -- which by the way is wrong, the framers allowed Congress to take the nation to war by giving them that power, but no where does the constitution prevent the President from exercising his authority as Commander in Chief of the military.  It is only Congress that has made that interpretation and altering the framer's intent by passing their own self serving law called the War Powers Act.

In any case, we watched the debates in the House and Senate with awe, hearing not only the usual pacifist drivel, but concerns over what happens afterward, how much will it cost, why not Iran or North Korea first, or "this gives the President too much power" as if the President cannot order the U.S. military in tomorrow on his own nickel.

In the end, a majority begrudgingly voted for a joint resolution "allowing" the President to do his duty.  Well fine.

But still the shrill voices continue.  So what has happened so far -- what events during this long process since 9/11 have occurred that might indicate the success or failure of the plan so far?
 

1. Al Qaeda has been disorganized for over a year by our ousting of the Taliban and taking away one safe haven for Al Qaeda
2. The Germans have disrupted the Al Qaeda in their Hamburg digs
3. The British have made a few attempts at turning over the rock in London and have done a tremendous job helping the U.S. in Afghanistan, not to mention standing behind the plan despite incredible liberal pressure on Tony Blair.
4. The French have dithered, the Italians captured but failed to extradite and the Indonesians have said "we have no problem."
5. Iraq, when faced with clear U.S. action pending, agreed to inspectors with more conditions then Clinton's definitions for "is", "sex", and "inappropriate".
6. North Korea, faced with a total shutdown of aid from the world decided to come to the negotiating table and discuss rejoining the world community.
7. Iran has done nothing to curb their excesses, clearly reserving their spot for "next after Iraq".
8. North Korea is forced to admit by U.S. evidence that they have been lying for more than two years, breaking two nuclear treaties and two international agreements -- surprise they have continued their uranium enrichment program for more nuclear weapons!
9. Al Qaeda has finally managed to get their act together and started bombing activities -- where, well Pakistan, Philippines, and oh yeah, remember "no problem" Indonesia?  Well they got their little gift from Al Qaeda too, the dead and injured in Bali making even the laid back Australians sit up and take notice.

So while the plan has been working, it hasn't stopped the terrorists, only disrupted them.  Why?  Because the teeth in the plan have been pulled back while we play the appeasement game.  The President has appeased the appeasers so they can appease the terrorists.  What have we got? Exactly what you get when you appease violent, evil people. A stick in the eye.

Fortunately, the FBI, CIA and other intelligence folks feel really guilty about 9/11 and have really gone overboard in their efforts to prevent other occurrences like that terrible day.  We've been lucky, however, because all the gabbing has fed the Terrorist monsters out there.  And we've telegraphed so much of our capabilities, strategies and plans that anyone keeping notes has our play book.  That IS NOT the price of our open society, just the cost of putting up with appeasers, whiners and hand wringers.  Sigh.

So the plan carries on.  Maybe the diplomats will surprise us and actually vote a resolution that puts some teeth in a requirement for Iraq to comply.  But we doubt it.

In the end, we might even get inspectors for a few weeks or maybe a month.  But at the first sign of Iraqi deception, denial or refusal, the inspectors better jet out of there.

Our President only withdrew the teeth for a short while.  Rumor has it that DoD Secretary Rumsfeld and CJCS General Meyers have been sharpening POTUS' teeth and are pretty much ready to go.  Just waiting on the word, and rumor also has it the President is about out of patience, showing an incredible store of that leadership quality.

We at MILNET think its been to long exercising diplomatic efforts doomed to fail with a fool like Saddam Hussein, too much time wasted on the fickle cowardly Congress, and far too much time given over to the media liberal bias.  Time to get busy and take the next step in the plan.  The longer we take, the closer Iraq gets to nuclear weapons, and the longer it will take us to turn our attention to Iran, who by the way is also happily working away at their own nuke.

Iraq, then if Iran hasn't cleaned up their act, we go there for a nice visit as well.  And if by then we haven't convinced North Korea to abandon their nuclear program and destroy any nuclear weapons they might have sitting around, then we'll go to North Korea for a round of anti bad guy training.

And you know what, if Syria and Lebanon still insist upon providing safe havens to terrorists like Hezbollah, maybe they too get on the list.  You see, that is the plan -- Take the war to the terrorists and the countries that harbor them.  It boggles the mind when we here the shrill voices complain "what's the plan".  Taking the war to the terrorists is a direct quote.  So is "If you with us, you're against us.  And you will suffer the same fate as the terrorists."  Too bad we can't make that promise to the weak minded hand wringers in this country.
 

© Copyright, 2002, Michael Crawford, MILNET
 
 

milnet@milnet.com