It is this reporter's opinion that as one of the first to speak out against President George W. Bush’s pre-emptive war against Iraq, there’s a temptation to say, “I told you so.”
And despite Bush’s starry-eyed vision of a democratic Iraq, neither Iraq nor any of its neighbors are now or ever will be candidates for participatory democracy. They are not built that way.
History has shown that without tyrannical government suppressing the population, only an iron hand can govern. The present al-Maliki sham regime offers full evidence of another attempt and failure.
Early on, I learned from experts on the Middle East that Iraq is not one nation but at least three different countries made up of tribes and their customs with their own varying religious versions of Islam and ever-changing cultures.
These tribes or factions have been at war against each other for 1,000 years. Saddam Hussein understood this weird conglomeration and viciously governed under the rule of the rifle barrel, the hangman’s noose, and the blade of an executioner’s sword.
My fellow Marine from World War II, veteran NewsMax journalist Phil Brennan, predicts three possibilities for the future of Iraq:
We leave and Iraq explodes into a bloody civil war.
We stay indefinitely and delay such an explosion.
Brennan predicts this one — a return to an iron-fisted authoritarian government.
History is moving in that direction. In the words of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, “A power vacuum is imminent in Iraq . . . The political power of the occupiers [that’s us] is collapsing rapidly. Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region.”
At that point, Ahmadinejad says he is prepared to fill the void indicating Iran’s eagerness to increase its role on Iraq’s political scene.
The late Saddam Hussein understood the role of absolute dictator. It becomes increasingly obvious that somewhere among this Middle East crisis will emerge a strong man — a man on a white horse — a secular-minded individual with ambitions and talents beyond ambition and talent of being not only a commander of troops but a commander of people.
Brennan says Iraq’s nationwide crisis calls out for a man with an iron hand and a sense of personal destiny — a Charles de Gaulle, for example.
So we await that step forward to solve the crisis, take over the reins, force the divergent population to stop killing each other, restore order, and enforce domestic peace.
Until such a man arises from this chaos, Bush’s war will continue to cost hundreds of thousands of lives, billions of dollars, and the destruction of thousands of years of artifacts.
Bush’s legacy will be written in the words of a pre-emptive war.
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