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The proximate cause was Iraq's latest public relations offensive concerning the annoying teams of U.N. inspectors that have been wandering around their country for the past seven years looking, mostly fruitlessly since immediately after the Gulf war, for "weapons of mass destruction."

One of the more amusing aspects of this situation is that both the U.S. and Iraq have accused the other of lying, deception and general perfidy. Oh, really? What a surprise! You mean, the Iraq that used poison gas against Iran in its last war and against its own citizens may be telling a fib when it says that it doesn't have any more? Or, that the U.S. that lied consistently to its own people about the School of the Americas and death squads and torture in our own back yard (in Central America), not to mention our own GIGANTIC stockpiles of "weapons of mass destruction"...this U.S....might not be telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Meanwhile, the facts (those nasty little intruders into the fantasy lives of our Great Leaders) tell us that it is impossible...I'll say that again...IMPOSSIBLE to detect and destroy the means of production of poison gas and biological agents, since they can literally be produced in tiny, cheap, "kitchen" laboratories. Furthermore, even the "madmen" in Iraq know (and have publicly stated they know) that it would be futile to use these weapons against the U.S., Israel, Iran, or almost anyone else. Why? Because, if they are so easy for Iraq to make and conceal, they are equally easy for everyone else to make and conceal as well. Using them is a sure guarantee that they, or even more destructive weapons, will be used against you in retaliation.

Why then possess them at all? Ah, so that you can "protect" yourself against others using them against you. It is a variation on MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) that so "successfully" kept the former Soviet Union from nuking us...or was it the other way around? (One is reminded of the tiger scarecrows, that chase away tigers. Do they work? "You don't see any tigers around here, do you?") The U.S. has tons and tons of the stuff, carefully concealed from its own citizens in super-secret facilities. But, at the very same time we are told, there IS NO PROTECTION. Terrorists can manufacture them all by themselves and already have...witness the subway Sarin attacks in Tokyo. A small vial of biological agents can kill tens of thousands of people. That the terrorists themselves might also go down is no help...suicide being such an attractive alternative to for misery these days, especially if, by taking a few thousand infidels with you, it guarantees (ask any mullah) your entrance into paradise.

Here's another fact. In recent years, the most devastating terrorist attacks have been performed by citizens of the very countries under attack. Remember Oklahoma city and the Unibomber, Japan, Israel, Egypt, etc., etc.

Given this collection of FACTS, rather than conjecture, emotion, politics or religious conviction, what can a reasonable person conclude? First, it seems to me plain as the nose on my face that what we ARE doing or planning to do about it is GUARANTEED TO FAIL! That the amazing thing about terrorism is not that there is so much of it, but so LITTLE, given how easy it is to carry out! That it is stupid and counterproductive for any nation to institute police state tactics or spend vast sums of money trying to prevent the unpreventable.

It seems to me obvious that the best way to keep others from wanting to destroy you is to MAKE FRIENDS with them...to help them when they have need, to try to understand their desires and help them achieve them, with reason and good will. It makes no sense to have draconian economic sanctions against Iraq. It hurts the very people we most need to befriend, the Iraqi people. Besides, it gives their leaders convenient enemies as distractions from the nasty things they are themselves doing. When are we going to learn this lesson? How many failed cold and hot wars do we have to fight before we understand that it is our own behavior, not theirs that we can most easily change? We live in an era of unprecedented PEACE. Let's use it not to build up either our "conventional" or our "exotic" forces, but to make friends with those who oppose us. We already possess the most awesome "defense" forces the world has ever seen. Any other nation would have to be truly insane to attack us, even if it were a fraction of its current size. So let's continue to shrink it, stating publicly that we will only use it for defense, not to try to fix all the world's woes. Let's get food and medicine to the Iraqi people, not aircraft carriers. Instead of calling the Iranians and Iraqis "religious fanatics," help our own (and other) Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations to open friendly dialogues with them. Let's buy from and sell to the Chinese rather than make arrogant pronouncements of our moral superiority. We have to stop pretending we are the "good guys" with a monopoly on virtue. If we don't reveal the deception ourselves, the ghosts of a million dead Vietnamese (or slaves, or Native Americans, or Japanese) will do it for us. Instead of claiming to be the men on white horses who will save the world, let's start saving it...by good deeds and good example.

Just as the only people who can "save" Iraq from Saddam are the Iraqi people, the only people who can "save" Iran from the Mullahs are the Iranians, the only people who can save the U.S. from itself are us. We got ourselves into this bind...and dammit, we ARE in a bind...we are the ones, the ONLY ones, who can get us out. Let's put OUR money where OUR mouth is. Happy holidays.

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