RALEIGH — The president has spoken again. As usual, Bush was plain-spoken, avoiding rhetorical flourishes and presenting his case for war with clarity and firmness. I thought he was a bit restrained in his criticism of the feckless United Nations and the perfidious French, but perhaps I was just ravenous for some red meat. Diplomacy, even now, has its uses, I guess.
The president emphasized the 12 years of prevarication that has led to this war. He underlined the importance of liberating the Iraqi people from a brutal regime, and argued that on occasion free nations must act in concert to preempt dangerous threats and to combat encroaching tyranny with the promise and reality of freedom. With terse but telling language, Bush promised the Iraqi people that they would soon be rid of the “poison factories,” the “torture chambers,” and the “rape rooms.” Makes you shudder, but it had to be said.
Rather than repeating myself — and unable to turn my attention to less weighty state or local matters, for obvious reasons — I thought I’d devote today’s column to some late-breaking news links you might find interesting. They help to quantity the array of forces in America’s “coalition of the willing.”
* Here’s a brief report in the Turkish Daily News that explains the diplomatic maneuvering now underway in Ankara. Kurks and other Iraqi opposition forces are meeting with a U.S. envoy and Turkish leaders, who seem willing to cool tensions with their Kurdish counterparts. Also, it looks like Turkey may yet approve critical basing and overfight rights for the U.S. and coalition forces in time to be of aid.
* A useful dispatch from United Press International puts some numbers on the American coalition and the Iraqi forces arrayed against them, comparing both forces in Gulf War II with those that fought Gulf War I.
* A piece in the Times of London explains what’s going on politically in Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair is deploying British forces, losing some political support in his own party, but also gaining some support among the public.
* The Australian prime minister, John Howard, has ordered about 2,000 elite Australian troops into the fray, no doubt all humming “Walzing Matilda.”
* Kurds are already working with U.S. special forces to fight for the liberation of their country. The coalition will apparently rely on them for a number of key tasks.
* Other Iraqi allies of the American-led coalition to liberate their country are already at work within Iraq to sabotage Saddam Hussein’s infrastructure and resources.
* There will also be symbolic commitments of troops, chemical weapons specialists, and support personnel from Poland and other Eastern European countries in “New Europe” siding with the U.S., Britain, and Spain against France, Germany, and Russia. A similar commitment is coming from the Albanian Muslims of the Balkans grateful for America’s past military intervention on their behalf.
For more news, information, and analysis on the unfolding war, please visit our companion web site at NorthCarolinaAtWar.com.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.