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Chalk one up for the good guys. Saddam Hussein met his end last night, proving the cliché “better late than never” has its times and places.
In the annals of history, such moments of poetic justice are rare. For every Mussolini who winds up on a meat-hook, there are probably a dozen Stalins, Arafats and Castros who get to die without having to reckon with the horrors they created.
There is one reason why Saddam Hussein’s life got the ending it deserved twelve hours ago: The righteous force of the United States of America.
PRESIDENT BUSH GETS A LOT OF criticism for his handling of Iraq and the larger war on terror. Much of it is deserved. The rules of engagement and the ultimate end-game in Iraq have never been clearly articulated. The occupation has been a mess, not because the nature of the mission has been poorly defined, but rather because it’s been barely defined at all. The policies dealing with Iran specifically and the wider war against Radical Islam in general have been mushy to date and again poorly articulated.
But President Bush has his strengths. The weak-kneed among us, like the NewYork Times editorial board and the president’s father, never knew what to do with Saddam Hussein. George W. Bush did – kill him. At his best, Bush shows a focus and a harshness that scares the stuffing out of the rest of the world.
Our enemies were watching last night. I bet Bashir Assad was picturing his neck in that noose, knowing full well that George W. Bush’s ire would be something that John Kerry, Arlen Specter and any other sympathetic Senatorial dhimmis would be unable to save him from. Kim Jong Il and a host of loonies in Iran probably took notice as well. For them, the sad fact is that they remain alive only at the pleasure of George W. Bush. I doubt that thought gives them much comfort.
I’VE NEVER OFFERED THE FOLLOWING SPECULATION in print, primarily because I didn’t want to jinx things. But I think the main reason we haven’t had a repeat of 9/11 or something worse in over five years is because George W. Bush scares the s**t out of his enemies. When domestic liberal whine, “He scaaaares me,” they really mean it. The world’s bad people feel the same way. The American reprisals to a terror attack that took place under George W. Bush’s watch would likely be swift, brutal and disproportionate.
Our enemies may be crazy, but they’re not stupid. I bet the next 9/11, which will probably be magnitudes worse than the previous 9/11, will wait until George W. Bush is gone from office. Our enemies see the rest of our leadership class as anxious to curry favor with those who threaten our destruction. And while the road-to-Damascus Senators are the worst offenders, practically our entire “elite” structure is suspect. The Baker Group was bi-partisan. The media? Don’t even get me started. If our enemies were to conclude that a major attack on U.S. soil would cause many of our political factions to sue for peace, they would be wrong. But they wouldn’t be unreasonable.
Bush’s successor will be tested. That’s almost a certainty. And while Bush’s communications skills and policies have too often been wanting, the country may someday pine once again for a President who was feared.
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