WHY I FAVOR WAR:

Orrin, as he so often does, hit the nail on the head. We should go to war for the liberty of the Iraqi people and the security of the American people.

We are not initiating this war. The truth is that Saddam is a whirlwind of war. Wherever he is, there is war. Consider:

• For twenty-five years he has waged war against the people of Iraq, killing them, imprisoning them, torturing them.
  
• Saddam has repeatedly waged war against his neighbors, invading both Iran and Kuwait. When not actually invading a neighbor, he has threatened to do so: for instance, by threat of war Saddam has secured Jordan's assent to the smuggling of oil and other commodities in violation of U.N. sanctions, and to shipments and personnel movements in support of Palestinian terrorists. It is to remove this perpetual threat that Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan are supporting our war effort.
  
• Saddam has aggressively recruited, trained, funded, aided, and fomented terrorists in the Middle East and around the world. Saddam, it has been reported, has had close ties to Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian terrorists for over twenty years, and has become the chief foreign patron of Hamas, Fatah, and al Aqsa. Iraqi agents have been linked to the assassination attempt against former President Bush in Kuwait, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, a number of terror attacks in Africa and the Phillipines, and the 2001 September 11 attacks. These links have not been conclusively established, but there is far more evidence linking international terrorism to Saddam than any other regime, and we know how dependent these terrorists are on the support of nation-states. We can reasonably infer that Saddam is the leading fomenter of terrorism in the world.
  

  Saddam, in short, has been waging a perpetual war against civilization. There can be no peace in the world until Saddam is removed from power, because Saddam will not live in peace with others.
  

  It only takes one to make a war. Our choice is to submit and be victimized by Saddam's ongoing aggression, or to fight back. It is time -- past time -- for civilization to fight back.
  

  May God bless the coalition troops. May the war be swiftly ended with few lives lost. May liberty come to the people of Iraq and security to America. Lord, hear our prayer.

Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 17, 2003 10:04 AM