Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published Feb. 26, 2003

Try to remember

I am old enough to remember when Nazi Germany invaded Russia in the early years of World War II, almost reaching Moscow before the Russian Bear, the Russian winter, and the allied attack on Germany's western front, finally drove them back.

I am old enough to remember the brutality of the rape and pillage that Germany inflicted upon the citizens of France. I can remember the dancing in the streets of Paris when English and U.S. forces finally liberated France from Nazi occupation.

And I can recall the Marshall Plan for European recovery, the Berlin airlift, and 40-year Cold War between the United States and Russia. All efforts by the American people to create a new and safer world for its children, and its children's children.

So what do we have now? Germany and Russia, the two most evil nations of the 20th century, now allying themselves with their favorite victim, France, in resisting the efforts of England and the United States to protect them -- and us -- from still another threat to world peace, this time from Saddam Hussein and his terrorist friends, the al-Qaeda.

Why? Why this seeming rejection of that which should be in their best interests? If we can believe a recent report by Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times, all we need do for an answer is to follow the money trail.

Let's consider France. Khidhir Hamza, who was the director of Iraq's nuclear-weapons program before defecting to the West, testifies that in 1974 he headed an Iraqi delegation to France to purchase nuclear reactors. He started with an anticipated requirement of some $50 million, but ended up with two reactors - one at $200 million, and another at $750 million. Any wonder that France wants to maintain its relationship with Saddam? Just think of the repair parts business alone.

He has further testified that "Germany was the hub of Iraq's military purchases in the 1980s." Billions of dollars were spent annually with Germany for the purchase of military gear, including classified technology for the enrichment of weapons-grade uranium.

And Russia? Kalashnikov rifles and the infamous AK-47 assault weapon that has become the standard for terrorists and others everywhere.

So we now see that the unholy alliance of France, Germany, and Russia and their threatened rejection of meaningful United Nations action against Saddam has little to do with protecting the lives of innocent Iraqi women and children from the invading Americans, as they would like us to believe, but more in protecting their illegal arms trade with world terrorists.

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Ed Wood is a resident of Sparta, TN. His column is published each Wednesday in the Crossville Chronicle.