March 31, 2003 | Op-ed

Progress in Iraq

Key Facts

Opponents of the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein are now criticizing the campaign's progress. Anti-war activists and a number of European and Arab leaders continue to call on the United States to withdraw and leave Saddam in power. Meanwhile, Arab media such as al-Jazeera portray the allied forces in Iraq as “invaders.”  It is worth highlighting a few key points to put the war in Iraq in perspective.

 

 

 

Analysis

This war is being fought because it is necessary, just and winnable.
(1) It is necessary because we cannot allow Saddam to continue to develop weapons of mass destruction with which he will pursue his goals of regional domination.
(2) It is just because Saddam is a brutal dictator who is responsible for the deaths of two million people and whose tyranny can only end by removing him from power. 
(3) It is winnable – if we have the will, the courage and the resolve.


No one should have expected this war to be easy or fast.
Saddam's regime is Stalinist in structure. He has commissars behind his generals, and secret police and death squads pervade every neighborhood. It would have been easier to dislodge Saddam in 1991 or shortly thereafter, when the Kurds and Shiites rose up in revolution and were wining in 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces. Difficult as this conflict may seem to some observers now, imagine how much harder it would be had we given Saddam additional time to prepare – including more time to develop and stockpile weapons of mass destruction.

 

Saddam's secret police continue to terrorize the Iraqi population

Last week, the International Alliance of Justice, the sister organization of Women for a Free Iraq, gathered recent reports from operatives inside Iraq that describe the terror tactics used by Saddam Hussein to prevent a popular uprising. These include forcing parents to give their children up for suicide operations, preventing people from leaving their homes, and openly shooting anyone who defies the orders of Saddam's agents. Iraqi propaganda seeks to portray the Iraqi people as resisting the coalition forces, but the majority is simply trying to hide from Saddam's death squads whose extreme violence and brutality are all too familiar to them.

 

Policy Implications

The international community should forcefully denounce Saddam's war crimes.

Too many world leaders who continue to condemn the war have said little, and done less, about Saddam's ongoing crimes against the Iraqi people. Human rights organizations such as Amnesty International that have criticized the United States for bombing Iraq's Television station should instead focus on the real horrors of the Iraq war: The death squads that are arbitrarily killing and arresting Iraqis, and the militias pose as civilians and endanger Iraqi non-combatants. 

 

 

The US administration is missing an important opportunity to include Iraqis in the liberation of their country.

The many anti-Saddam, pro-American Iraqis in exile should be with our troops – explaining to civilians that the Americans have come to help; giving out humanitarian aid; picking up intelligence on where Saddam's thugs and spies can be found. They should be helping to brief journalists on what is really taking place in Iraq – which they understand because of their experiences and because they have maintain reliable sources within Iraq.

 

 

Additional Information