by Austin Baydevices.
Put those horrors on "List A."
Now, move to ballistic missiles and suicide terrorist strikes.
Jot those down on List B.
Name List A: "Sample Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)."
Dub List B: "Sample means for delivering WMD in order to kill
human beings by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and thousands
of thousands."
Neither list is all-inclusive, particularly List B. However,
including "postal envelope" with "ballistic missile" as an effective means
of delivering "bugs" (biological weapons) in order to kill hundreds of
thousands of innocent people would be highly misleading. There's a
tremendous difference between creating mass panic via Postal
Service-delivered anthrax (where psychological jolt far supercedes physical
damage) and a missile attack where a warhead disperses disease spores over a
city, literally seeding large-scale suffering and destruction.
Now jump to List D: That's the list where you'll find Al Qaeda
and other international terrorist organizations.
Yes, I skipped List C. For the moment, put three names on that
list: Iran, Iraq, North Korea.
The Bush administration labels this list "the axis of evil."
Critics of President Bush, of both the foreign European feckless and
domestic spineless varieties, say the "axis of evil" label is a rhetorical
excess. Perhaps, but sometimes harsh facts require harsh language.
List C helps connect List D to the weapons and delivery systems
of Lists A and B. That's the harsh hell of it. The connections among these
states and terror organizations are as real as the hole that was the World
Trade Center.
These "rogue-led states" (a more accurate description than
"rogue states") on List C provide "back up" and support to terrorists.
Arguably, if not the source of a particular terrorist's "global reach,"
these nations act as the financial, intelligence and material facilitators
of that capability. In some cases, they may indeed act as instigators. The
"rogue-led" states also interconnect. North Korean ballistic missiles crop
up in Iran's arsenal.
Bush deserves kudos for his clarity of language. "States like
these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to
threaten the peace of the world. ... The United States of America will not
permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's
most destructive weapons."
The budget Bush proposed this week deserves kudos for clarity of
purpose. It is a serious budget for a serious war -- a just war that must be
fought, won and paid for.
The feckless and spineless appear to prefer a superficial war.
Superficial war was the coin of the last administration. Bill Clinton
offered bombast, declaring war against terrorism in 1998. Was that
rhetorical excess? A more apt description is words without deeds. Sept.r 11
demonstrates that the price for waging a superficial war is stiff.
In contrast, Bush provides leadership and budget. Naming the
names demonstrates that Bush is not going to fight a superficial war,
because the future price exacted by either terrorists or rogue-leaders using
WMD will be far too terrible.
Yet the feckless and spineless are shocked at President Bush
naming names.
They shouldn't be. Everyone knows who they are. Last fall,
Undersecretary of State John Bolton tabbed Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Iran
and North Korea as states possessing or pursuing bio-terror weapons. These
six dreg states have all served as entrepots for global terror
organizations -- sustaining them with men, money and guns. Bush was merely
drawing a finer bead, fingering the three chief culprits.
The administration clearly understands that Iran, North Korea
and Iraq represent distinct challenges. The Iranian people are sick of their
fundamentalist dictators. American political, economic and intelligence
operations will help support Iranians seeking democratic change. The
mullahs, however, have been given notice that the United States will no
longer accept their edgier capers, such as allowing Al Qaeda terrorists to
escape through Iran. North Korea is a basket case, but a basket case that
still prefers to proliferate rather than cooperate. The Bush message to
Pyongyang is to recalculate. Since Sept. 11, the gray zone for facilitating
terror has shrunk. The few millions Kim Jong Il's cohorts obtain from
selling weapons to terrorists could quickly turn their basket into a casket.
As for Iraq's Saddam Hussein, that particular hub of the "axis
of evil" will be broken by bombs and tanks. Put him on List E, the one for
dead dictators who will not be missed or mourned.
