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Has The War Made America Safer? |
Current rating: 3 |
by Stephen F. Cohen
(No verified email address) |
24 Apr 2003
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It is by these crucial and measurable criteria that the American people, and any politician who wants to lead them, must judge the war in Iraq and Bush's leadership. Those of us who were against the war and continue to oppose the assumptions on which it was based fear that future events will answer these questions to the grave detriment of American and international security. |
NEW YORK -- The Bush administration and its cheerleaders in the media are saying that the "remarkable success" of the war in Iraq proves that its opponents were "spectacularly wrong" - even, some charge, unpatriotic. Intimidated by these allegations and the demonstration of overwhelming American military power, many critics of the war are falling silent. The chairman of the Democratic National Committee, no doubt speaking for several of the party's presidential candidates, has rushed to urge that the war "not be on the ballot in 2004."
But critics of the war have no reason to regret their views. No sensible opponent doubted that the world's most powerful military could easily crush such a lesser foe. The real issue was and remains very different: Will the Iraq war increase America's national security, as the Bush administration has always promised and now insists is already the case, or will it undermine and diminish national security, as thoughtful critics believed?
In the weeks, months, and years ahead, we will learn the answer to that fateful question by judging developments by seven essential criteria:
Will the war discourage or encourage other regional "preemptive" military strikes, particularly by nuclear-armed states such as, but not only, Pakistan and India?
Will the war stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons or instead incite more governments to acquire them as a deterrent against another U.S. "regime change"?
Will the war, and the long U.S. occupation that seems likely to ensue, reduce the recruitment of young Arabs by terrorist movements or instead inspire many new recruits?
With or without more recruits, will the war decrease or increase the number of terrorist plots against the United States, whether in the homeland or abroad?
Will the war help safeguard the world's vast quantities of nuclear and other materials of mass destruction, and the expertise needed to make them operational, or will it make them more accessible to "evil-doers."
Will Russia, which has more ill-secured devices of mass destruction than any other country and which strongly opposed and still resents the U.S. war, now be more, or less, inclined to collaborate with Washington in safeguarding and reducing those weapons and materials?
Finally, considering the rampant anti-Americanism the war has provoked, will it result in more or fewer governments willing to cooperate with, individually or in multinational organizations such as the United Nations, President George W. Bush's stated priority, the war against global terrorism?
It is by these crucial and measurable criteria that the American people, and any politician who wants to lead them, must judge the war in Iraq and Bush's leadership. Those of us who were against the war and continue to oppose the assumptions on which it was based fear that future events will answer these questions to the grave detriment of American and international security. As patriots, we can only hope we are wrong.
Stephen F. Cohen, a professor of Russian studies and history at New York University.
Copyright © 2003 the International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/frontpage.html |
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Re: Has The War Made America Safer? |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 1
26 Apr 2003
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Dear Stephen,
You said, "As patriots, we can only hope we are wrong." So far your projections for doom and gloom have been 100 % wrong. I would suspect that this will continue well into the future. I do have to laugh at you calling yourself and others of your ilk patriots though. Now that is funny.
Jack
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