Iraq in the Spring

by Wayne Lutz

Every argument from the left aginst the war to liberate Iraq has been obliterated by events, many of them broadcast world-wide in real time, others coming fast and furious as soldiers and journalists dissect the putrid, gaseous body of the dead Iraqi regime.

Consider Iraq; the Iraq that we all knew was, and has now been proven to be, by the very five senses of embedded observers:

Observe two Iraqi lovers, strolling the banks of the Tigris in Spring, as they lose themselves to the pungent aroma of mustard gas wafting on the morning breeze, mingling with billowing clouds of desert sand. They delight in the musical voices of little children, drifting down to their ears from the barred windows of prison cells, and feast their eyes on the intense crimson of the blood flowing from busy plastic shredders.

They reach out with timid hands and touch, enthralled by the tingling of sarin on their skin, then sit down on the grassy shore to titillate their palates with a picnic lunch of raw wheat and goat's cheese, purchased especially for this romantic outing from the black market in a dark urban alleyway, and washed down with vintage river water, filtered through countless millennia.

They rest there for awhile, content in each other's company and secure in the knowledge that their trist is blessed by their leaders, far away from the squalor of the ghetto in that porn-glutted, gilded palace - or maybe that one, or that one over there...or perhaps in that big one up there.

Ah, Iraq in the Spring.

Not that any of this has stopped anyone who is committed to blaming America first for the sake of, well, blaming America first.

To be fair, there is a valid reason for the outcry from the anti "war" crowd. - an outcry that continues even now, even in the face of incontrovertible proof of the justness of this particular war. It is the existance of characteristics inherent in some humans that make it possible for a person blessed with liberty to seek to deny that blessing to fellow beings and believe that he is righteous in so doing: self-loathing, and a fundamental lack of the ability to reason.

I'll translate the above paragraph. Leftists just can't think straight. That's why they're Leftists. Duh.

Illustration: This example is admittedly anecdotal, but it is also representative, in a simplistic way, of the frustrated bleatings that continue to issue from the anointed in academia, the media, hollyweird, and the Democratic party. Nuggets from a letter to the editor of the Montgomery County Intelligencer, that I presented yesterday, from a committed anti-libertyist:

"In a recent column Cal Thomas wrote that all "anti-war" people should apologize for their stance. I'm pro-peace, not antiwar, but I'll offer up an apology. I apologize to the people of Iraq for blindly coming in and taking over without a clue of what to do after the statue fell."

Note that the United States and her partners are, even now, embarking on an excrutiatingly specific plan of physical and political reconstruction after having "taken over," a plan with detailed goals for the future security of our (superior!) way of life in mind. But facts are not the liberal's friend.

"I apologize for the sudden plunge into Third World conditions for one of the most civilized societies on Earth."

Well, no. First, that "plunge," if it occurred at all in comparison to pre-war conditions for the common folk, is a temporary matter of mere weeks, already well under control. And if by "civilized" you mean the propensity of the men-folk to hang women by the neck from lamp posts for the crime of waving to Americans, well then I'm with you.

If, on the other hand, you are referring to the birth of civilization in that region of the world, you are a few thousand years out of touch. Much of the rest of the world has moved on since then.

"I apologize for the taking over a country without its permission."

Duly noted. Next time we will ask permission before sending a despot to hell.

"I apologize for almost 2,000 innocent civilians killed by U.S. and British troops, and countless other needless military deaths."

As well you should. It's your own fault, after all. Had you and your ilk not given the dictator hope of survival by way of American indecision, he might have surrendered or absconded without a fight. That blood is indeed on your hands, and I'm glad you recognize your complicity.

"I apologize to the world for the destruction of 7,000 years of precious artifacts, looted and destroyed before the eyes of U.S. troops and journalists without a single effort to stop it."

This one is the clincher. You know, I, too, am awed when I find myself in the presence of those physical artifacts, preserved behind thick glass, that remind us of our heritage and of the human struggles that preceded us. These things that dwell in museums are important and irreplaceable testaments to the ability of mankind to innovate, progress and overcome limitations. They are the chronicle of our existance.

However.

If every museum and archiological dig in the world were wired with explosives, all tied to a single button under my own finger, and if I were then given this choice: allow us to execute this one, lone, unkown, poverty-stricken man who is guilty of no other crime than the desire to be free. Allow us to put a single, painless bullet into the back of this one bowed head, as punishment for daring to speak. Allow us that, and signify your acquiescence by leaving the button be.

Or, press the button, destroy the physical record of civilization forever, and this wretched man will live.

God help me, I would not hesitate for a moment. Ka-bloom!

Mark Steyn recently wrote, on this very subject:

"Civilization's artifacts belong not to the real estate on which they were found but to the civilization they underpin. One day Iraq will be part of that civilized world: It will have not only a museum worthy of its past, but a present reality worthy of it, too. The desecration of Mesopotamia's legacy took place not in the last 10 days but in the last four decades. Baghdad's citizens merely helped themselves to the few things that were left, whether office furniture or potsherds. What's important about a nation's past is not what it keeps walled up in the museum but what it keeps outside, living and breathing as every citizen's inheritance."

The inheritance of every Iraqi citizen, because it is the inheritance of every citizen of the Earth - is the right, endowed by God, to breathe free. The Iraqi lovers strolling the banks of the Tigris are now witnessing a new Spring season, one filled with life and hope for the future. Enabling leftists like the writer of the letter above who would deny them that season for the sake of some clay pots, or simply for their hatred of America, are as guilty of human oppression as the despots themselves, and every word they now utter serves nicely to expose them.