The War on Terror and the War on Iraq: two different coins

Submitted by Ron Polland (United States), Nov 4, 2004 at 15:44

The only connection between the war on terror and the war in Iraq was that the former made the latter possible. Before he even took the oath of office, Bush had every intention of deposing Saddam during his presidency. Had there never been a 9/11, there would never have been a need or opportunity to make Afghanistan a democracy, and likewise, declaring war on Iraq would have been made a whole lot harder, if not impossible.

In other words, 9/11 was the best thing that could have happened to Bush from a re-election standpoint. Without it, there would be no war on terror, and subsequently, nothing for him to tout as the main reason for his re-election. The War in Iraq -- if there had been one -- would have been solely of Bush's creation, and he would have been swept out of office by Kerry or anyone else the Democrats nominated.

9/11 should have been a wake-up call to Bush that the Saudis belong in his Axis of Evil, moreso than Iraq. After all, most the 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, not Iraq, and Iraq was not the epicenter of fascist Islam. However, it would be hard to imagine how Bush can "win" his war on terror if he maintains a "business as usual" approach with the Saudis and allows them to export Wahabbism unchecked.

If Bush really wants to make a major dent in the war on terror then he has to remove the Arab-Israeli conflict as the world's scapegoat. Bush has to drive the point home to the rest of the world that Fascist Islam breeds terrorism, not Zionism. Nothing is scarier to me than to have our closest ally, Tony Blair, proclaim this past week that the "conflict between Israel and Palestine (Yo, Tony, there is no such place as Palestine) is the world's most serious problem." Well, check that. Hearing Europe say that Israel is the "greatest threat to world peace" is the most disturbing.

You can count the number of countries who will not kowtow to Islamic terrorism on the fingers of one hand, but it is getting harder and harder to make a fist with that same hand.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".