Recently I dreamt that Osama bin Laden, along with his entire Al-Qaeda network boarded a plane for Washington DC, landed at Dulles Airport, took a cab to the Justice Department, whereby the promptly and peacefully surrendered themselves to Attorney John Ashcroft, calling an end to the Jihad against all so-called infidels and the use of violence henceforth and forever more as a mechanism by which problems are solved.
Meanwhile, upon receiving the news of bin Laden's capture, the president issued the following statement: "The arrest of Osama bin Laden's capture is further proof that regime change is needed in Iraq!"
Perhaps it is just me, but doesn't seem that nothing short of North Korea firing missiles on Japan, Taiwan, and China, along with kidnapping one the president's daughters, will divert the Bush Administration from going to war with Iraq?
It is a done deal. Those opposing the war can continue, and should, to demonstrate their opposition, but we are going to have a war. The primary reason we are going to have a war is because the Bush Administration has left itself no other alternative.
So it matters little that the man many believe orchestrated the 9-11 tragedy, Khalidh Shaikh Mohammed has been apprehended, nor the fact that Osama bin Laden, who is now called "Osama bin forgotten," is back on the scene; the Bush administration must have war or risk losing credibility on the world stage.
What would be the impression of every crackpot, pseudo terrorist/dictator around the world who has access to a several gallons of gasoline and matches, should the Bush Administration back down on its threat of unilateral military action against Iraq?
With 250,000 troops already lined up at Iraq's doorstep, the failure to take action at this point would require twice that number in order to get someone to react. Let's face it, without a war at this date, the United States would become the largest military paper tiger known to human history.
In response to Iraq's efforts to destroy some of its missiles to demonstrate to the United Nations that it was cooperating with the inspectors, the Bush administration called those actions "the mother of all distractions."
"He denied he had weapons, and then he destroys things he says he never had. If he lies about never having them, how can you trust him when he says he has destroyed them," Ari Fleisher, the White House spokesman said recently.
This argument is not necessarily in support of those celebrities, students, and moral doves who oppose the use of war at all cost, I will take that up in my next piece, this is about the president's desire for war has left him without an exit strategy.
"Bush seems very determined to go ahead towards war," said former Congressman and president of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington. "I think Bush has come to the conclusion that he cannot really exit the path toward war without severely damaging his own political standing," Hamilton said. "And I don't think he can go into the next presidential election with Saddam Hussein still in power."
As much as I oppose this president on most matters, I would really like to believe that Mr. Hamilton's comments are the result of many years on Capitol Hill, which have left him jaded.
Assuming Mr. Hamilton analysis is correct, the impending war with Iraq would be the ultimate "Say it aint so." Political consequences cannot be the measure by which one decides to deploy 250,000 men and women onto Iraq.
My own political naïveté, notwithstanding, I would like to believe that this president has the moral conviction alter the course of war regardless of the political consequences.
I can accept the feuds around the proper course of action for war between Secretary of State, Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. I can even accept the misguided analysis of National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice or the occasional cameo by Vice President Dick Chaney. But to think that the Rasputinesque Karl Rove was waving poll numbers around as the president decides the fate of men, women and children in Iraq as well as the United States is a little bit unsettling.
For the record, it will not be the fact the President Bush brought down Saddam Hussein that will decide his reelection, it will be how he has brought down everyone's 401Ks that will decide who gets to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20, 2005.