Kennedy's Curse

22 September 2003


Kennedy Tells Truth; Bush Thinks It's Hell

Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the least talented of Joe's boys, stated last week that the war in Iraq was dreamed up in Texas, that the Bush administration used "distortion, misrepresentation, a selection of intelligence" to get the war going, and that it's policy in Iraq is adrift. The White House refused to dignify these truths with a reply, but "an unnamed Republican" told CNN "The senator's comments reflect the tired old soft-on-defense attitude of the Democratic Party." Better that than soft-headed attitude on defense.

While the Senator is a counter-productive messenger with only limited appeal outside Massachusetts, the real point he made was crippling. First the Iraq War was a distraction from the war on terror, and now the same is true of the Iraq peace. Even the White House admits that the Saddamites were not involved in the September 2001 attacks on the US. Why then will $87 billion be diverted from real American needs to rebuild a country that was not involved but was attacked anyway?

America is at war, this journal has never said otherwise. The Fascislamists of Al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers are threats not just to America and its western allies, but also to the dignity of Islam itself. They have decided on war, and they have decided never to surrender. For them, it is victory or martyrdom. The latter is preferable.

But every bullet fired in Baghdad, every MRE delivered in Basra, every intelligence resource devoted to Iraq is not being used where it should be. Indeed, the Saddamite regime needed to go, but a list of 20 other states in need of liberation makes imposing freedom a dangerous and expensive policy to have begun. Senator Kennedy was right in saying "Terror has been put on the sidelines for the last 12 months."

Let the flag-waving mob who couldn't find Baghdad on a map until the bombing began play with its deck of Most Wanted cards. True patriots want an answer to two very simple questions: Where is Usama bin Laden? And why are American resources being diverted from finding him?

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