Tightening the Noose…Conservative’s Unquestioning Support?

by Glenn R. Jackson

Doesn’t he deserve to be attacked? Doesn’t he deserve to feel the full might of the United States of America? He is despotic and totalitarian. He is dangerously intolerant of any differing views or thoughts. He holds freedoms of press and religion in utter contempt. His people live in some of the poorest and most deployable conditions in the world. He has sought weapons of mass-destruction and is a threat to use them. He is an enemy of democracy and liberty for his country, and foments trouble for his neighbors. His people surely contributed to the attacks on this country and to the death of thousands of our countrymen.

He is Hussein of Iraq, or Assad of Syria, or Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, or Musharraf of Pakistan, or Khatami and the Ayatollahs of Iran, or any of a half dozen others in the Middle East. He is a product of the Muslim world and he is fast becoming the servant of militant Islam. Militant Islam is the seed that has grown into this nation’s and the entire Western world’s most pressing problem and ALL these men contributed to its nurture and growth.

But President Bush insists on singling out Hussein and Iraq as the enemy that must be attacked and defeated. The President has set this nation on a course for a preemptive “regime changing” war with his plans for Iraq and Saddam Hussein, and the wisdom of that course must be questioned.

Pakistan has over 8,000 religious madrasah schools, which serve as recruitment centers for terror organizations like Al Qaeda. Pakistan is a nuclear power and is one assassination away from militants controlling the bomb. Pakistan’s security force, the ISI, has been tied directly to allowing Al Qaeda survivors to escape from the U.S. into Pakistan’s mountains.
Fifteen of the nineteen September 11^th killers were Saudi Arabian. A recent Rand Corporation briefing for the Pentagon was damning of the Saudis, reporting that the Saudis are “active at every level of the terror chain.”
Assad and Syria continue their control of Lebanon and support of the Hezbollah terror organization. Syria is one of the most closed of Muslim societies.
Iran with Russia's help continues in their quest for nuclear weapons. Despite continuing and growing protest within Iran, the clerics and the government they control continue to oppress the freedoms the people demand. In addition Iran remains as the seat of militant Islam and supports Hamas in their reign of terror.

While President Bush’s fixation with Iraq defies a review of reality it is not whom his administration is targeting for a “regime change”, but who it is not that should be of greatest concern.

Touted for his “moral clarity” in the statement of the “Bush Doctrine”, which in simplicity is “you are either with us or the terrorist,” President Bush has received conservative support. Yet engaging in an effort to force a regime change in Iraq, while maintaining cozy relations with regimes deeply involved in the support of Terror bodes ill for the outcome of the Terror War.

Conservative support should not be unquestioning, especially when thousands of American lives will be at stake. A regime change in Iraq is to be desired, but to focus on Iraq and leave equally evil regimes in place is madness and bad strategy. Already we have seen the influence of these evil regimes in derailing American momentum from Afghanistan with a deliberate igniting of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Saudi payments and glorification of the Palestinian terror bombers is the act of an enemy. Outmaneuvering the Bush Doctrine is in full swing in Arab capitals, and is aided and supported by President Bush’s lukewarm adherence to his own proclamation.

Conservatives must demand more action against other regimes fostering the Terror culture before we sign-on to the President’s plans for Iraq. We owe it to the moral standing of this nation and her people to insist that all who support Terror share equally in the consequences.

Action that this administration can take is to begin freezing Saudi financial assets and those of other nations that continue to support Terror. The President can send a clear signal of American intent to remove the oil sword from over America’s head by initiating a clarion call for new technology for powering the nations transportation infrastructure, fuel cell technology being one possible answer. Shockwaves of American intent need to be felt in every Muslim capital. Only then will America’s chances of winning the Terror War improve.

While it is true that Saddam is in a box in Iraq and that the U.S. military could begin to tighten the noose. A frontal assault committing thousands of U.S. military personnel to actual combat against a madman with nothing to lose would place our forces in a war surrounded by anti-American regimes. Given the Bush administrations headstrong rush to commit our military to a war in Iraq it is up to conservatives to guard the military’s back.

Conservatives should make clear to President Bush that he does not have conservative support for a regime change in Iraq without first tightening the noose on the other Muslim Terror Regimes.

Glenn R. Jackson is Chairman of the American Reformation Project, former State Chairman for Buchanan Reform and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party. Glenn also served on the Executive Committee of the Reform Party USA. Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.