Friedman and the Truth

Thought I would pass this on to you from our all time favorite truth-teller
T. Friedman.

Tell the Truth
February 19, 2003
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
As I was listening to the French foreign minister make his
case at the U.N. for giving Saddam Hussein more time to
comply, I was struck by the number of people in the
Security Council chamber who applauded. I wish there were
someone I could applaud for.

Sorry, I can't applaud the French foreign minister, because
I don't believe that France, which sold Saddam his first
nuclear reactor, the one Israel blew up, comes to this
story with the lofty principles it claims. The French
foreign minister, after basking in the applause at the
U.N., might ask himself who was clapping for his speech
back in Baghdad and who was crying. Saddam was clapping,
and all his political prisoners - i.e., most Iraqis - were
crying.

But I don't have much applause in me for China, Russia - or
the Bush team either. I feel lately as if there are no
adults in this room (except Tony Blair). No, this is not a
plague-on-all-your-houses column. I side with those who
believe we need to confront Saddam - but we have to do it
right, with allies and staying power, and the Bush team has
bungled that.

The Bush folks are big on attitude, weak on strategy and
terrible at diplomacy. I covered the first gulf war, in
1990-91. What I remember most are the seven trips I took
with Secretary of State James A. Baker III around the world
to watch him build - face-to-face - the coalition and
public support for that war, before a shot was fired. Going
to someone else's country is a sign you respect his
opinion. This Bush team has done no such hands-on spade
work. Its members think diplomacy is a phone call.

They don't like to travel. Seeing senior Bush officials
abroad for any length of time has become like rare-bird
sightings. It's probably because they spend so much time
infighting in Washington over policy, they're each afraid
that if they leave town their opponents will change the
locks on their office doors.

Also, you would think that if Iraq were the focus of your
whole foreign policy, maybe you would have handled North
Korea with a little less attitude, so as not to trigger two
wars at once. Maybe you would have come up with that
alternative - which President Bush promised - to the Kyoto
treaty, a treaty he trashed to the great anger of Europe.
You're not going to get much support in Europe telling
people, "You are either with us or against us in a war on
terrorism, but in the war you care about - for a greener
planet - America will do whatever it wants."

I am also very troubled by the way Bush officials have
tried to justify this war on the grounds that Saddam is
allied with Osama bin Laden or will be soon. There is
simply no proof of that, and every time I hear them repeat
it I think of the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. You don't take
the country to war on the wings of a lie.

Tell people the truth. Saddam does not threaten us today.
He can be deterred. Taking him out is a war of choice - but
it's a legitimate choice. It's because he is undermining
the U.N., it's because if left alone he will seek weapons
that will threaten all his neighbors, it's because you
believe the people of Iraq deserve to be liberated from his
tyranny, and it's because you intend to help Iraqis create
a progressive state that could stimulate reform in the
Arab/Muslim world, so that this region won't keep churning
out angry young people who are attracted to radical Islam
and are the real weapons of mass destruction.

That's the case for war - and it will require years of
occupying Iraq and a simultaneous effort to defuse the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict to create a regional context
for success. If done right, such a war could shrink Al
Qaeda's influence - but Al Qaeda is a separate enemy that
will have to be fought separately, and will remain a threat
even if Saddam is ousted.

It is legitimate for Europeans to oppose such a war, but
not simply by sticking a thumb in our eye and their heads
in the sand. It's also legitimate for the Bush folks to
focus the world on Saddam, but two years of their
gratuitous bullying has made many people deaf to America's
arguments. Too many people today no longer accept America's
strength as a good thing. That is a bad thing.

Some of this we can't control. But some we can, which is
why it's time for the Bush team to shape up - dial down the
attitude, start selling this war on the truth, give us a
budget that prepares the nation for a war abroad, not a
party at home, and start doing everything possible to
create a global context where we can confront Saddam
without the world applauding for him.