Lessons from Korea and Iraq

Note:

I was made aware today that I have won what I consider a great honor for this blog—Bestest Blog of the Day for October 12, 2006 (making the site eligible for further honors). This is in competition with thousands of other blogs. Thank you LAEvanesce for your kindness in nominating me, and to Bestest Blog for choosing me from among the many nominees. Thank you to my contributors, especially paz y amour (the path), LAEvanesce, and to passionate liberals like Miss V for keeping me honest.

My Liberal Friends

I have ringing in my ears and thoughts racing through my mind with the comments and opinions of my liberal friends. I believe I have made myself truly open to hearing the other side of things, not only by listening to these bright, passionate people of the left, but also through tuning in to Air America, CNN, any Hollywood actor it seems, and even forcing myself to watch Keith Olberman. I couldn’t view him for long, though. He makes my skin crawl just like Michael Savage makes my liberal friends’ stomachs turn.

Lessons from Korea and Iraq

Anyway, on the issues of Korea and Iraq, I know there are two (three? a hundred?) sides. I’ve listened to quite a few. Here is my take on the lessons we can learn from both, as I believe they are interrelated somehow:

Invading Iraq

Bush was right in going into Iraq. Not for the reason of WMD, which was good enough, as everyone at that time believed Saddam had them—but for other reasons mentioned by many, and for some reasons only I and a few other people seem to notice. First, of course, Saddam was a butcher, slaughtering his own people. Second, he used WMD on live human beings. Third, he was paying suicide bombers in Israel $25,000 per family, supporting terrorism against that great country. Fourth, he did have connections with al-Queda and terrorists, even harboring some in Iraq. Fifth, he was shooting at American planes. Sixth, he did not comply with U.N. resolutions. Seventh, he had already invaded a neighboring country, Kuwait.

There are other justifications I can think of, but I’ll just mention two more. He was a threat to our oil supply. I know, some liberals will say we went to war for oil. So what? Oil is a vital national interest. Just see how long we can support this economy without it. See what would happen to our poor people then.

My last reason (my very special reason) is simply that the invasion of Iraq shook up the Middle East. The Middle East needed shaking up. Bad people were killing good people. Bad countries were terrorizing good countries. In order to save lives, this war had to happen.

Invading Iraq Created More Terrorists?

In response to the left’s claim that the Iraq war has created more terrorists—what do they think 9/11 was? A love note from Islam? 9/11 happened before Iraq. Remember? These people already hated us. They didn’t need the excuse of an Iraqi war to despise Western culture. We are the infidels. We deserve to be killed. Period.

Mistakes in the Iraq War

However, after invading Iraq and conquering Saddam, I will admit, then, that Bush and company made several mistakes. It was an ill-conceived war. We overwhelmed Iraq so much that we drove their thousands of soldiers into hiding, to later become part of the insurgency which kills us and each other today. We were, and remain, culturally insensitive. We imagined that American style democracy could take hold quickly. It can’t. If they are going to have a democracy, it’s going to be one that honors their cultures, tribalisms, values, religions and so on.

The Lesson of Korea

Korea, though, and I’ll be brief here, is an example of what could have, and I believe would have, happened in Iraq if we hadn’t invaded. Iraq would have eventually gotten its nuclear weapons, and then what would we have? Another Korea. A rogue nation with a nuclear bomb—impossible to invade, impossible to easily discipline.

The lesson of Korea is, if you’re going to invade a country—do it before they have nuclear weapons.

Voila! Bush was 100% correct in invading Iraq when he did, pre-emptively! His timing was perfect.

What Do You Think?

Tell me what lessons you think we need to learn from Korea and Iraq.


Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)