Why Saddan Hussein is Gone

Until 9/11, the entire Middle East was generally regarded by most Americans as little more than a giant sand box, peopled by tribal Muslims who pitched tents above oil fields. Our history books describe the Bagdad area as the “Cradle of Civilization,” and depict its rich history of science, architecture, and culture. Ditto for the Persian, Syrian and Egyptian Empires.

The Medieval Crusades, launched by Pope Urban II, initially pitted Christians against Turkish Muslims for control of Jerusalem. Then the Moors came running from North Africa. The clashes ended about 150 years before Columbus was credited with discovering America.

The United States’ first military conflict with Muslim nations began in 1801, when President Thomas Jefferson refused tribute payments (bribes) to the pirate states of the Barbary Coast. The annual bribes bought safe passage for our merchant ships and crews in the Mediterranean Sea. Direct naval and land engagements with Tunis, Algiers, and Tripoli ended this practice in 1815.

Of course, the Suez Canal crisis in the 1950’s and sporadic newscasts about the Soviet Union’s attempted hegemony in Afghanistan (1979-1989) reminded us of the Middle East. And who could forget the little State of Israel repeatedly defending its existence? When the American hostages were returned a year after the Iranian Revolution (1979), news of the Middle East rarely flickered unless oil prices spiked.

Then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. The Gulf War brought the Middle East back into focus. Kuwait was liberated and we left, except for the forces that enforced the U.N. sanctioned no-fly-zone over Iraq. The spasm of terrorist crimes—including the first attempt to down the trade towers and the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon—appeared to a layperson as disjointed acts.

Until September of 2001, the Islamic jihad was neither understood by the Western populace, nor portrayed in our media, as a worldwide effort to destroy Christians, Jews, democracy, and capitalism—the engine propelling the West’s success. Soon after 9/11, the Taliban in Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda became household words.

Next came Iraq. Oil is at the heart of the US presence in Iraq, but not the cause of the conflict. Saddam’s eight year war with Iran in the 80’s and invasion of Kuwait weren’t pointless exercises to amuse his military. He wanted control of the reserves and the oil flow off the Arabian Peninsula. The Saudis recognized his intent, and assisted our military buildup out of self-preservation.

Saddam’s willingness to butcher and torture hundreds of thousands of Kurds and Shiites to solidify his control of Iraq is well documented, as is his donations to the families of terrorist, suicide bombers, and his tirades against Israel.

The question is not whether or not Iraq had, or was developing nuclear weapons, but why every nation on earth believed he did? The cat-and-mouse games he played with U.N. nuclear inspectors for over a decade honed this perception. When his geo-political goals, ruthlessness, public statements, and earlier efforts to acquire a nuclear arsenal were combined with these tactics, common sense dictated the only reasonable conclusion.

Saddam is gone because of the confluence of Muslim terrorism, his willingness to encourage it, his goal to control the Middle East’s oil fields, for thumbing his nose at the U.N. and for under-estimating America’s willingness to enfore the Carter Doctrine. Simply, the US couldn’t risk the annihilation of his neighbors, or Israel, his domination of the world’s oil reserves, or nuclear weapons in the hands of jihad proxies on our shores. And there sits Iran . . . .