<< Back 9/11/02 Bush team stumbles toward Baghdad By Marshall Frank Imagine this scenario. It’s the year 1944, sometime in spring. President Franklin D. Roosevelt has publicly stated that Adolf Hitler is a mean guy, and we must invade Europe. Cabinet members nod. The vice president whole-heartedly agrees, and goes about the country making speeches to fund-raising groups and press groups seeking support. It becomes a public debate, should we or shouldn’t we, front page fodder every day. After all, the president wants to know that it is OK. Other administration members disagree and tip-toe around the subject because they don’t want to appear disloyal to the boss. The invasion question is put to the international community, because, well, we don’t want to seem like the bad guys. Talk shows banter the details about, discussing when it will occur, and where. Calais? Normandy? Marseilles? What time of day? What weapons, ships, planes, numbers of troops, etc. People are interviewed in the streets, not only the U.S., but England, Australia, and South Africa. Opinions vary. Pollsters have a field day rating the pulse of America weekly on the popularity of a military invasion of another country. To kill, or not to kill, that is the question. Political cartoonists and comedians draw belly laughs from a host of audiences. Gen. Eisenhower stands ready to become a national icon. The enemy — in this case, Germany — also listens to the radio and reads the newspapers and knows all that the American people know, including when and where the most likely invasion will take place, if at all. In reality, the War Room is the national media, a plethora of photo ops and sound bites. Nazis are laughing their fannies off, witnessing America shooting itself in the proverbial foot. Slowly, the American people realize this isn’t just entertainment, that living and breathing men and women are destined to be killed by the thousands. Others crippled for life. Families will be wrecked. The people of Europe, including Germans, will also suffer ruin and destruction and immeasurable losses of life. When the blood spills, it is no longer a laughing matter. But, blood will spill, and a lot of it will be due to showing our cards before the hand was over. Fortunately, this kind of government bumbling did not go on in World War II or we would have lost many thousands more at Normandy and, perhaps, the war itself. Yes, we understand that Hitler is a different story as he was already engaged in an ongoing war, which pales the Iraqi situation by comparison. But I do sit in wonder, observing our president and his administration publicly posturing a war decision to the world when the international community has already spoken out, loud and clear. When all is said and done, and the great nations of the world turn their backs on the U.S., will we invade anyway? Are we prepared to disregard Germany, Japan, China, France, and Australia, South Africa, and all the other countries of the Mideast that have already uttered a resounding “No”? That would be like executing the defendant after the acquittal. If we go to war against Saddam, we best be prepared for isolationism like we’ve never seen before. Foreign aid is nice, but it’s not going to heal this wound. At a time when we are in great need of international support, Bush arrogantly thumbed his nose at the world by dispatching Colin Powell to the Earth Summit in place of himself. Powell got to weather the hailstorm of anti-American sentiment. We stand now as the only advanced nation in the world that does not endorse the Kyoto Treaty to stop global warming. And we all know the reasons why, and so do they. Corporate payback. This is a president with a vision toward the future? Then, there is the death penalty issue, another face-off. Since Europe has abolished capital punishment, they have voiced opposition toward extraditing suspects or to release evidence in criminal matters if our government intends on putting defendants to death. Mr. Ashcroft and company is holding fast, declaring the death penalty a proper way of dealing with criminals, and to hell with France, England and Germany. Whether you agree with capital punishment or not, it is pure stupidity to give Europe the finger when we are in dire need of their cooperation in fighting world terrorism. Who ever said our leaders were smart? I don’t think anyone would disagree that Saddam is a dangerous fellow and his weapons of mass destruction may, in fact, wipe out mass populations sometime in the future. It is a dilemma, indeed, that Mr. Cheney and his people — excuse me, I mean Mr. Bush — face as they try to prevent such a calamity before it happens. But think about this. Saddam is sitting back knowing he is under a global microscope, keeping his death machine in check. Once he is invaded without overt provocation, all bets are off. Saddam will surely justify using all the weaponry at his disposal, claiming self defense. That’s when he will release his deadly chemicals and diseases, not only at our troops, and our people, but in the direction of Israel. Where will we ultimately sit in the court of world judgement after Saddam successfully leads the charge driving the Jews into the sea? And what will we have accomplished when thousands of Americans end up in early graves and the radical Islamics replace Saddam with another madman? Granted, these are not easy times and there are no simple solutions. But I would be feeling a lot better knowing there was a Roosevelt in the White House, or a Truman, or even a John McCain, who surely knows a little something more about war than these buffoons. (Marshall Frank is a retired Miami Dade police officer and novelist who lives in Maggie Valley. He can be reached at mlf283@aol.com)