REALITY War is never black and white, and often necessary
By MATTHEW GLASSER hile many of you spent Monday celebrating your day off with beer and barbecue, I actually took some time to consider the meaning of Memorial Day. While our soldiers fight a war in Iraq, many of us back home continue to fight about the morality and necessity of this war.
Take a walk on the Third Street Promenade and you’re a bound to see a handful of antiwar/anti-President Bush protesters. And then there’s the table of the anti-everything bumper stickers. I spent some time looking at that table and I noticed something interesting. There were tons of anti-war, anti-bush, anti-Republican, and peace now bumper stickers. But I didn’t see a single anti-torture, rape, mass murder, or totalitarianism one. So I guess Saddam Hussein is off the hook for his sins according to the people who buy these stickers.
And that’s my biggest problem with most of the “I don’t believe in war under any circumstances” folks. They believe that war is wrong under any circumstances. And I have thousands of years of history to dispute the belief that violence isn’t ever necessary.
Did we have a good reason to go to war in Iraq? Absolutely. And the reason didn’t have anything to do with weapons of mass destruction. Despite what we tell our children, monsters do exist. They are sociopaths without morality and they will kill, torture and rape without remorse. These people exist and you can’t negotiate, reason, or compromise with them. They are without consciences and they derive pleasure in inflicting pain and suffering. And in some cases, these monsters are the leaders of countries.
The worst serial killers in America killed dozens of people. Saddam Hussein has been accused of killing, torturing and raping millions of people. He wasn’t going to stop until someone stopped him. He has a history of using chemical weapons on his people. And while it’s possible that he didn’t have WMDs at his finger tips, don’t think for a moment that he wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to use them.
As I see it, there were two good reasons for going to war with Iraq. I believe there are certain universal principals that we all must follow. You do not murder, torture and rape under any circumstances. And no, just in case you were wondering, I don’t consider armed combat in defense of these principals to be murder. Certain things are worth fighting for, and there is difference between killing and murder in these cases. Saddam wasn’t going to stop his campaign of terror until someone stood up to him. For that, I am proud that we did.
As Americans, we are one of the few countries that live under a Bill of Rights. Our democracy teaches us about the concept of “live and let live.” Therefore we have an obligation to remember that lesson and liberate those who are being oppressed by tyrants like Saddam.
I know what you are going to say next. Where does it end? It doesn’t. The best thing the world could do is create an international military force to rid the world of all the Saddam Husseins. They don’t have to replace these dictators with an American style government. Let the people of that country decide on the form of the government. But they do have to wipe out every head of state that authorizes and condones the murder, torture and rape men, women and children.
This brings me back to the “activists” that I always seem to run into on the Promenade. Some people call these anti-war folks liberals or Democrats. But I think that’s being unfair to the left. These people are so far left that they’ve almost come full circle. You know the types I am talking about. These are folks who compare President Bush to Hitler, or claim that he is worse than Saddam Hussein. They are the ones that believe we deserved what happened on 9-11 because of our foreign policy. In fact, some of them have such contempt for our country that they compare our fighting men and women to terrorists.
And they wonder why they are so out of touch with the majority of the population — the United States population. I am sure many of them would fit right in in France. I guess the people who don’t believe that violence and war are ever necessary never spent much time studying history.
I am sure Hitler would have eventually changed his mind about European domination and returned to Germany. And I bet the survivors of Hitler’s death camps would have preferred to negotiate for their release rather then being liberated by Allied Forces.
Then there is Joseph Stalin. He murdered millions of his fellow Russians during decades of terror. Do you think we could have negotiated with him to become a nicer, kinder dictator? Men like Stalin only understand violence and only force will remove them from power.
Take a stroll through history and you’ll meet hundreds of monsters who should have and could have been removed from the planet. I am sure you’ll recognize a few of these notorious names: Mao Tze Dong (China, 1966-69), 11,000,000 million murdered. Hideki Tojo (Japan, 1941-44), 5,000,000 civilians murdered. Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79), 1,700,000 murdered. Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94), 1,600,000 murdered. Menghitsu (Ethiopia, 1975-78), 1,500,000 murdered and starved to death. Ismail Enver (Turkey, 1915), 1,200,000 murdered.
Does anyone think we should have negotiated with these folks? We should have forcefully removed them from office, strung them up by their toes, and let the families of their victims use them as a piñata. And because the world did not stand up to these lunatics, millions upon millions of innocent people were tortured and murdered. When will it end? When will the world finally stand up to these kinds of sociopathic bullies?
Even the bible teaches us that violence is sometimes necessary when dealing with totalitarian rulers. If you know the story of Passover and Pharaoh, you understand what I mean. Moses asked Pharaoh to free the Jewish slaves. Pharaoh declined and was inflicted with 10 plagues. Blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, cattle disease, skin disease (boils), hail, locusts, and darkness didn’t persuade Pharaoh to free the slaves. It took the 10th plague — the slaying of the first born son — to convince him. He only did the right thing when confronted with force and violence.
That’s the language that the Saddam Husseins of the world speak. We did the world a great favor by removing him from power. If you think the war in Iraq is unjust and immoral, what do you call turning your back on people who are being brutalized by their so-called leaders? War is never black and white. And it’s ignorant to think that talk will change the minds of people who lack a conscience. If you want to protest something, protest the rest of the world for not acting sooner and thank our soldiers for having the courage to do what’s right. (Matthew Glasser by e-mail at).
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 1, 2004. Read the original PDF.