Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of author Douglas De Bono

Welcome to DouglasDeBono.Com, the Cyberspace Home of
author Douglas De Bono.

Victory Effect

December 14, 2003 will go down as one of the milestones in the War on Terror. This is the day the world learned that Saddam Hussein had been apprehended alive by American forces. They dug him out of a spider hole outside al Dour—a small farming town 9 miles south of his home town Tikrit. He looked more like a regular at the Union Gospel Mission than the Butcher of Baghdad.

The man who prodded so many others to go down fighting, reportedly announced, “I am the President of Iraq and I wish to negotiate.” He never drew his pistol, nor did he attempt suicide. The man who has gassed the Kurds, invaded Iran, overran Kuwait, developed clandestine nuclear, biological and chemical weapon programs and murdered an untold number of his fellow Iraqis turned out to be the coward we all suspected.

Unlike many of the 20th century’s mass murders (Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Idi Amin and Mao), Saddam will face the people he has persecuted for the past twenty-five years. No one should have any illusions about how this proceeds. Allied military intelligence will pump Saddam dry of every secret tucked behind those shark dead eyes, and the information will be verified before the niceties of a short trial and a date with the hang man can be arranged.

Interestingly, the blame-America-first crowd has downplayed the significance of Saddam’s capture.

1. Rant: Saddam’s capture is irrelevant, bin Laden is the one we should be after. Fact: Allied forces are still hunting for bin Laden, and when we find the cave in Tora Bora that he has become part of, I am sure we’ll retrieve the remaining chunks of DNA for the world. I for one remain skeptical of the bin Laden sightings. If he is alive, he probably is a guest of the Tehran tight turban club.
2. Rant: Saddam’s capture does improve the safety of allied forces on the ground. Fact: Saddam’s brief case provided an intelligence bonanza to military forces. They have rounded up over fifty insurgents, tracked down the list of pager numbers and in the week following Saddam’s capture a single American soldier was killed. (That is not to downplay the tragedy of a soldier’s death, but to illustrate that the insurgency is running out of steam.)
3. Rant: A Boston Globe editorial suggested the arrest of Saddam was illegal, because allied forces did not have proper warrants. Fact: These folks probably support Governor Dean of Senator Kerry. It’s tough backing a loser.
4. Rant: Saddam’s capture has no impact on the Middle East. Fact: The Arab Street was stunned into silence. These people who regularly call for the destruction of Israel and denounce the United States had little to say publicly. Privately, Bashar Assad and Yassir Arafat probably need a change of underwear (boxers or briefs?) Publicly, Muammar Qaddafi seems to have no appetite to take on the United States and the United kingdom. Five days after Saddam’s capture, he announced he was opening his country’s nuclear, biological and chemical warfare programs to international inspectors. (Granted, he approached the allies in March as the Marines and the 3rd Infanry Division raced towards Baghdad. Semper Fi and Hoo-rah!)

While the war isn’t won, 2003 will go down as the year significant advances were made against the Islam-Fascists threatening western civilization and American sovereignty. The effect of battlefield success on the political and military decisions of our adversaries (dare I say enemies) cannot be understated.