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Dec 17, 2003 Something interesting, if not unexpected, is happening in the wake of Saddam’s capture. It would appear, in the short time since we captured him, it suddenly dawned on a number of people that it really wasn’t important to capture him in the first place. Surprised? Don’t be. All we need to remember is that, in the tradition of the great George Orwell, we have come to the point where people on the ‘right side’ (by which I mean ‘Left side’) of any given issue can simply state that he or she has always said A, and never not A, even in the face of monumental evidence linking that person to not A throughout recorded history. Fortunately, many of us have a slightly better memory than all that…plus we have the ability to save articles from the past and bring them out when tortures of the truth ply their trade. I recall many in the media, some on Capitol Hill (that would be on the Left slope for the most part) and elsewhere saying that the President Bush had failed us in not capturing Saddam. After all, they would ‘reason,’ we cannot possibly build a free and democratic Iraq without assuring Iraqis that the evil one will never return to take his vengeance. We have him in an ‘undisclosed location’ the so the current argument now goes, Saddam’s capture was obviously not important…since he was hiding in a hole and could not possibly have been coordinating any terrorist attacks. Oh, and also we are supposed to forget the constant wailing that we were failing the people of Iraq, the US, Earth and the Intergalactic Alliance because we had not put an end to the mythical figure that was Saddam Hussein. So what do we have here? On one hand we’ve got the pre-capture argument from the Left that Saddam’s extremely high ‘capture value’ was due to his mystique and that is was simply the possibility that he might return that was keeping people from openly helping the our soldiers and inspiring those who fight against us from the shadows. On the other hand, we now see the post-capture argument that Saddam had no ‘capture value’ in the first place because he was obviously providing no material support to the terrorists (although that, I must point out, has yet to be determined). I lost track…who are we at war with, Eurasia or Eastasia? I’d say ask Howard ‘Orwell’ Dean and his anti-war buddies. And don’t forget to bring your erasable protest signs on the off chance that the argument has to be changed again because something untoward happens, like the naysayers find themselves in yet another corner because we keep kicking the living you-know-what out of the bad guys. Keep the faith, savor victory where we find it and be not deterred by the defeatists hiding in our midst. ------------ About the author: Tom is a conservative medical student in liberal New England who probably spends too much time paying attention to politics and never finds himself lacking suitable subjects for friendly arguments. Email Tom Carroll: carroll@student.uchc.edu Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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