IRAQ WAR 101

            If you were born after 1967, you may not know all of the events that led up to the Iraq war, and you may think it’s all George Bush’s fault. A lot of things happened prior to September 11, 2001 that set us up for that attack, the second terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. This is why we can never have another wimp in the Whitehouse. This is why it is so important to look past charisma and charm to issues of substance when electing our leaders.

            I recently heard Hillary Clinton bashing George Bush over his inheriting a balanced budget, a revenue surplus and robust economy. The problem is that none of those things are worth inheriting if they were accomplished by weakening our country's defenses. During the “Clinton” years, our military, defense and intelligence agencies suffered major cuts rather than cutting pet projects of law makers. That, and Bill Clinton’s failure to see the big picture implications of not aggressively defending our country, put us in a position that would ultimately require us to go to war.

            Look at the first World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993. The attack was meant to cause one tower to fall onto the other tower and release a cloud of cyanide gas killing thousands of Americans. As it was, the design of the building prevented the collapse and the cyanide gas burned up in the heat of the explosion. Six people died that day. The man responsible for building the bomb, Ramzi Yousef, entered this country on an Iraqi passport. In January 1995, Yousef plotted to blow up eleven U.S. airliners using a liquid explosive designed to pass through airport security undetected. Fortunately, while mixing the chemicals in Manila, he caught the place on fire and was forced to flee, leaving behind a computer that led to his arrest in Pakistan. This was the first opportunity the Clinton administration had to address terrorism, but instead settled on the small prize and thus letting the bad guys see that they could attack us and not fear retaliation.    

            The next Clinton blunder came in Mogadishu on October 3, 1993, and is the subject of the film “Black Hawk Down”, a DVD that I’m guessing is not in Bill Clinton’s collection. The U.S. Army Rangers and Delta Force had a mission to capture warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. The military had a plan and requested certain equipment and personnel to succeed, but the Clinton administration only gave them a fraction of the request, citing that they didn’t want to “show too much force”. It’s always a big mistake when you let politicians make military decisions.

            Our forces were ambushed by Somali men, women and children that were armed with not only automatic weapons, but also rocket propelled grenades. The fire fight lasted seventeen hours, left eighteen soldiers dead, eighty -  four wounded and gave our enemies less to fear. This should have been the last time Politians were aloud to dictate the execution of a military operation, but it wasn’t.

            On May 26, 1998, Osama Bin Laden held his one and only news conference. Oh yes, you read that right, he held a news conference to announce he was bringing Jihad to the U.S. “By God’s grace, we have formed with many other Islamic groups and organizations in the Islamic world a front called the International Islamic Front to do jihad against the crusaders and Jews.” He would go on to state “And by God’s grace, the men are going to have a successful result in killing Americans and getting rid of them.” He even stated the results of his jihad would be visible within weeks.

            On August 7, 1998, two U.S. embassies in Africa were bombed. The attacks occurred within minutes of each other. One attack in Tanzania killed 11 people and injured 85. It would have been worse but it was a national holiday in Tanzania and the embassy was closed. The other attack in Kenya killed 213 people and injured more than 4,500. Of the dead, 12 were U.S. nationals. A third attack in Uganda failed, but the day still proved that al-Qaeda still had the capability to carry out simultaneous attacks. 

            On August 20, 1998, U.S. intelligence knew the general area of Afghanistan where al-Qaeda operatives were located. Unfortunately, due to the Clinton administration's cutbacks to “balance the budget”, surveillance aircraft were not available in the region. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri actually placed a phone call to a journalist using a satellite phone. Had the U.S. aircraft been monitoring Afghanistan, the call would have given us his exact location and would have most likely caused his death. Again, the Clinton administration sacrificed the safety of our country in order to achieve a shallow political victory. These jabs without retaliation emboldened Bin Laden to plan an attack on U.S. soil, setting his sites on unfinished business.

            On October 12, 2000, less than a month before the next Presidential election, a small boat exploded alongside the USS Cole killing 17 sailors, wounding 39 others and causing extensive damage to the ship. October 14, 2000, President Clinton "We will do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to find those who killed our sailors and hold them accountable", as he prepares to leave office.  

            After the September 11, 2001 attacks, President Bush took the time to analyze the situation. He inherited military and intelligence agencies that had been severely scaled back. Every agency charged with gathering intelligence on our threats was even given directives from the Clinton administration not to share information. Bill Clinton’s poor leadership and distractions had put us all in danger. I see bumper stickers that read “Nobody died when Clinton lied”, that is so far from the truth.

            President Bush showed great leadership in remaining calm, understanding that great leader’s act, week leaders react. After 8 years of Bill Clinton barely even reacting, we found ourselves suffering a major attack on our own soil. This attack, as President Bush pointed out, was from an enemy unlike any we have ever faced. The attacker had no country, no government, no permanent base of operation. It was an ideology hiding in the shadows like cowards.

            President Bush realized that we needed a place to fight them, preferably not on our soil. He did tell us he planed to “smoke them out” but he needed a place to draw them to fight. Now he couldn’t just say that Iraq would make a good battlefield but it was the best option. Saddam Hussein had previously used weapons of mass destruction on his own people and expressed desire to obtain more. His was the most logical government to remove and the best region in that part of the world to use as a battlefield. This also makes me consider a remark from Barrak Obama that we need to pull out of Iraq and go after al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Apparently they don’t teach geography classes in Hawaii, otherwise he would know that fighting in Afghanistan makes as much sense as playing the “Super Bowl” on Mount Everest.

            The basic plan, to remove Saddam Hussein from power and draw al-Qaeda and other Islamic Extremists to fight us on a proper battlefield was a good one. That part of the plan worked so good that even Rosie O’Donnell figured out that the terrorist, were pouring into Iraq; unfortunately, she wasn’t bright enough to figure out that was the plan, and that fire is used to bend steel.

            Where the plan didn’t go so well was letting politicians dictate how the war was carried out. It was to be a kinder, gentler war…. What? If the combatants were to retreat to a mosque, or even use it as a place to store weapons, we could not pursue them into the mosque. We were fighting an enemy that had a safe home base to regroup, rearm and plan attacks all the while knowing we would not attack. Never in all the wars on this planet has this happened, and for a good reason.

            I believe that if the military officers had controlled the planning and execution of the war, our casualties would be half of what they are today. We need to put something in place to prevent politicians from interfering with military operations. We also need to rebuild our military and intelligence agencies to be second to none, and to use them at their maximum capacity when needed.