Part 2 Why the Iraq War is the Right War in the Right Place at the Right Time.

Same admonitions as before, my opinions are in red. 

 

The rest is simply history as pulled from encyclopedic sources.  You can argue my opinion but you must counter my facts. 

 

President Jimmy Carter takes office in 1977.  New optimisms, out with the old in with the new.  The hangover from the oil problems during Nixon years began to drain the economy.   Carter tries to help, but does more damage than good.  Windfall profit taxes on Oil Companies had the opposite of the desired effect.  New Gas Lines formed.

 

He tried to back away from confrontation with the Soviet Union by implementing the Salt II agreement.  He thought that perhaps it would be reciprocated in spirit.  It was not, the rest of the world only saw us as weaker and weaker.  Carter was dealing with an economy of 18% interest, 11% inflation, Unemployment of over 10%, new gasoline lines as a result of his policies, and a Dow under 900 (I wish I had bought); things couldn’t have been worse.  This disequilibria led to the savings and loan crisis of the 80s.

 

Carters answer to the oil shortages that persisted was to put solar panels on the White House, wear a sweater, put a wood burning stove in his White House living quarters and turn down the whole government’s thermostat.  We froze in the dark after having driven to work at 55mph (Thanks to a 1974 Democratic Congress and a weaked Nixon Presidency) smelling wood smoke.  Those really were the bad old days.

 

Things got worse.  Carter idealistically set out to enforce bans on worldwide human rights abuse sanctions he implemented against human rights abuses in other countries.  New sanctions against Somoza in Nicaragua, criticism of Pinochet in Chile, The government of South Africa with sanctions against Rhodesia and our corrupt ally the Shah of Iran. 

 

These were interpreted by our enemies as weakness and a lack of focus.  Problems of monumental magnitude at home and we were out playing nanny to states around the world.  Carter put the same human rights focus on the corrupt (but friend of the USA) Shah of Iran. He was deposed by militant islamists. Carter tried unsuccessfully make nice with the Islamists in power. Out of the goodness of his decent but naive heart, Carter allowed the Shah into the US for political asylum.  Iranian Militants were angered and seized the American Embassy in Iran taking 100 Americans hostage.  In a badly disguised effort to appease The Shah was exported to Egypt where he died.   Carter made a failed attempt to rescue the hostages.  It failed.  Meanwhile Ross Perot successfully initiated a rescue of EDS employees held in Iran by the Iranian Government of the Ayatollas.  It became a bestselling book, “On Wings of Eagles” by Ken Follett.  This made Carter look even worse.   Worldwide any fragment of respect the world had for the USA was lost.

 

The Ayatollahs scared everyone worldwide.  When the US government backed down from Iran, Russia in fear of a like uprising on their southern border invaded Afghanistan.  Carter opposed Russia’s action, began training Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which caused increasing instability in the region that ultimately led to the rise of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

 

Carter’s response to Russia’s Afghan invasion was to not send a team to the 1980 Olympics in Russia.  And at the same time he signed away the Panama Canal. His incompetent heart always was trying to do good.  Poor Jimmy.

 

The single greatest thing Carter ever did was broker a peace accord between Egypt and Israel at Camp David.  For that I forgive him much of the rest of his bungling.

 

In many people’s opinions Carter was the worst president the USA has ever had and the best ex-President; if he would just keep his mouth shut and a hammer in his hand.  He was and still is soft in every way and in an abstract way personally responsible for the increasing unrest in the Islamic world that ensued in the 80’s and 90’s leading up to 9-11 and the Iraq war.  If only he had dealt decisively with Iran at the hostage crisis perhaps our stance in the world would be better.  

 

He didn’t, IF is for fools.  Rewrite history in your own heart, what if we had gone in after them with a historical show of force.  The Ayatollas weren’t popular with many in Iran at the time and with thier cooperation we might have a free Iran today. There were generals of the Iranian Army begging us to come in and help depose the Isamists from power.  We turned our back on them.  Many lost their lives.

 

 

Reagan was elected.  

 

I liked Reagan. The Great Communicator, positive, hope and all.  But he was weak in many ways.  Too much an appeaser.   Too United Nations Oriented.  Trying to be friends with the left. 

 

But he was tough on the Soviet Union.  Spending like mad to develop war machines that scared the crap out of them.  Star Wars was like having pocket deuces and the Soviets thinking we had aces.  It was all a bluff.  It worked.  It led to the eventual collapse along with the failure of communism in general and Gobachev’s glasnost.  These three things created the world and the cold war cessation we have today. 

 

But our eyes were not on the battle brewing under the surface in the middle east.  While we talked big about peace thru strength in the Reagan administration, the terrorists in Beirut were causing an uproar.  There was a border conflict with Israel in 1982.   Reagan sent 800 Marines in.  Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in the conflict.  Inflamed Arabs demanded justice.  A peace was brokered by Reagan.  A multinational task force was formed. 

 

In October of 1983 in Lebanon 241 marines were killed in a terrorist bombing of a Marine Barracks.  All the Marines were withdrawn from Lebanon due to a great hue and cry from the liberal media.  A pattern of expecting American defeatism was being established in the minds of Islamic terrorists worldwide.  They started to believe that if you cause casualties the US will turn tail and run.  In response to the Beirut humiliation, Reagan invaded Grenada.  We won. That was supposed to restore our place in the world.  It made us look even more stupid and weak.

 

Reagan was playing reckless games.  He was funding and training Afghan “Freedom Fighters” against the Soviet Union (that included Osama bin Laden).  He took the side militarily of Iraq against Iran in a bloody war of attrition that so destroyed the Iraqi economy it created an incentive for Iraq to invade Kuwait later.  He covertly shipped arms to the Iranians to secretly fund the Contras in Nicaragua against the Sandinistas.  He provided Intelligence to Saddam Hussein to fight Iran.  Supplied Saddam with “Dual Use” weapons (agricultural and military) which were later used to gas the Kurds and create the stockpile of WMD’s everyone feared.  We didn’t want Iran to invade Iraq or Saudi Arabia.  It really WAS about oil.

 

IT was almost frenetic.  The investigations by mostly Democrats of the Iran Contra activities (Remember Ollie North?) and the 1987 Borking of Robert Bork created the Gotcha Politics of today.    This was the first.  It wouldn’t be the last. The Republicans have long memories.  President Clinton later suffered for the sins of Borking.

 

George Herbert Walker Bush digs the hole deeper in part 3.