THE WANDERER, MARCH 25, 2004

JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH

Bush's War and Osama's

     Hans Blix, the former United Nations arms inspector, 
has been in this country promoting his new book, 
DISARMING IRAQ. He should also be collecting a lot of 
apologies from the Bush administration and neocon 
journalists who sneered at him for failing to find the 
weapons they insisted Saddam Hussein was hoarding.

     He was, in his tentative way, right; they, in their 
belligerent way, were wrong. But they can't bear to 
express regret, even as reasons for contrition mount.

     The Iraq war, it's now clear, was a folly. How 
costly a folly, we don't know yet, but the postwar 
occupation continues to drain blood and treasure for no 
apparent gain. Just the opposite: America's worldwide 
reputation may be at its lowest ever, especially in 
Europe. And the enemy is alive and well.

     The terrorist bombings in Madrid on March 11 were 
exactly what opponents of the war had warned against. 
More than 200 people died and 1,500 more were injured by 
the blasts, which appear to have been the work of 
al-Qaeda or, even more chilling, of one of the similar 
groups which are now proliferating.

     A taped message confirmed that the perpetrators were 
Arab Muslims. An earlier tape by Osama bin Laden himself 
had threatened to punish Spain for collaborating with the 
United States.

     These latest attacks were achieved by remote 
control, not suicide tactics, with cell phones triggering 
the bombs. The fanatics are refining their methods, using 
more sophistication and requiring less self-destructive 
devotion to the cause.

     This should make recruiting a bit easier, so we 
should expect more such attacks. The 9/11 feats may never 
be repeated, but Madrid's 3/11 surprise is almost surely 
only the beginning of a new style of terrorism which will 
be very hard to prevent.

     The bombs had an immediate political result: They 
knocked the government from power, giving the socialists 
a victory in the elections held three days after the 
horror. Spanish voters were furious at the government for 
lying by blaming Basques, rather than Islamists, for the 
crimes.


Old Europe

     But in a sense, the Spaniards were voting against 
George W. Bush, whom the previous government had 
supported in his wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, despite 
the overwhelming unpopularity of this support among the 
Spanish people. The new socialist prime minister, Jose 
Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, had campaigned on a promise to 
bring Spanish troops home.

     American hawks accuse the Spanish voters of caving 
in to terrorism. The charge is unjust. Spaniards merely 
judge that Bush's "war on terrorism" has gone badly, if 
not madly, awry and that they are now paying the price in 
their own blood. Like the abstaining countries the Bush 
crowd sneeringly calls "Old Europe" (which by implication 
includes the Pope), they want no further part of it.

     This is very bad news for George W. Bush. Before the 
bombings and the election, he could point to Spain as his 
chief proof that his war policy hadn't ruptured America's 
traditional alliances with Europe. Now those alliances, 
and American "leadership," are a shambles.

     Today Europe is indeed anti-American, and Bush can 
thank himself for that. He has put himself in the awkward 
position of insisting that the Iraq war was warranted, 
while in effect pleading that he was misled into waging 
it by faulty intelligence -- even though the results were 
foreseen by countless people whose only source of 
information was the press. Why didn't Bush listen to 
Blix, instead of his neocon brain trust?

     Judging from his public remarks, Bush doesn't feel 
chastened by events. But he can no longer pretend to have 
struck crippling blows against the shadowy terrorist 
network. The Madrid nightmare shows, as it was meant to 
show, that the Iraq war achieved absolutely nothing. 
Saddam Hussein is a worthless trophy. He was never the 
enemy.

     Now is the time to reflect on the war fever that 
followed the 9/11 attacks. War is so horrible, even for 
the victorious side, that a country must be in an 
abnormal state of mind when it is actually eager for it. 
The sure sign of war fever is that it's those who have 
reservations about war, rather than those who urge it, 
who must justify themselves.

     But such was the mood of America very recently. Now 
sobriety has begun to set in.


Wasting an Asset

     It's sobering indeed to reflect that the alternative 
to Bush will be a candidate even further to the left than 
he is: John Kerry. But things have come to such a pass 
that American voters, like the Spanish, may feel that the 
socialist option is the lesser evil.

     Bush has actually managed to waste one of the 
Republicans' traditional assets: the assurance that they 
will at least try to limit federal spending. They can no 
longer even blame the Democrats for staggering budgets 
and record deficits.

     One of the strange facts about today's politics is 
that war has become associated with the right. The 
progressive Woodrow Wilson took us into World War I. The 
god of American liberals, Franklin Roosevelt, led us into 
World War II. Harry Truman, another liberal Democrat, 
went into Korea without even a declaration of war, 
setting a precedent for Constitution-free warfare that 
Democrats John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson would apply to 
Vietnam.

     War is big government par excellence, yet 
Republicans are now proud to claim it as their own cause, 
almost no matter where, when, or why. Considering how 
often presidents have found war ruinous after war fever 
wore off -- Truman and Johnson didn't even seek 
re-election, and the first George Bush lost to Bill 
Clinton right after *winning* the Gulf War -- this is 
something of a mystery to me.

     Meanwhile, the real war continues, and the United 
States isn't winning it.

     While Bush has been taking bows, Osama bin Laden has 
been watching quietly, with a grim smile at the 
American's vanity. "Let the infidel waste America's 
wealth in Iraq," he might have said. "Then we will decide 
where the jihad will resume."

     An e-mail message to an Arab-language daily in 
London the night of March 11, purportedly sent by a 
terrorist group, warned that another attack on the United 
States is "90% ready -- and coming soon."

     If such a thing comes to pass, even if it misfires, 
it will underline the complete futility of the Iraq war. 
So will any further terrorist mischief in Europe.

                 +          +          +                  

     Love your enemies -- but never forget that they are 
your enemies. Charity isn't goofy, says SOBRAN'S, my 
monthly newsletter. If you have not seen it yet, give my 
office a call at 800-513-5053 and request a free sample, 
or better yet, subscribe for two years for just $85. New 
subscribers get two gifts with their subscription. More 
details can be found at the Subscription page of my 
website, www.sobran.com.

     Already a subscriber? Consider a gift subscription 
for a priest, friend, or relative.

                                        --- Joseph Sobran

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read this column on-line at 
"http://www.sobran.com/wanderer/w2004/w040325.shtml".

This column copyright (c) 2004 by THE WANDERER, 
www.thewandererpress.com. Reprinted with permission.

This column may not be published in print or Internet 
publications without express permission of THE WANDERER. 
You may forward it to interested individuals if you use 
this entire page, including the following disclaimer:

"THE WANDERER is available by subscription. Write
subscription@thewandererpress.com for information.
Subscription price: $50 per year; $30 for six months.
Checks can be sent to The WANDERER, 201 Ohio Street, 
Dept. JS, St. Paul, MN 55107.


"SOBRAN'S and Joe Sobran's syndicated columns are 
available by e-mail subscription. For details and 
samples, see http://www.sobran.com/e-mail.shtml, write 
PR@griffnews.com, or call 800-513-5053."

This page copyright (c) 2004 by THE VERE COMPANY.