Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published March 26, 2003

What went wrong?

Having read considerably about the character and faith of President Bush, I am firmly convinced that in the beginning he had no intention of taking this nation to war against Saddam Hussein. The whole idea that this could turn into an active military conflict seemed preposterous. How could a backward nation about the size of the state of California expect to prevail against the world's only superpower? Last November, Bush followed the advice of Secretary of State Colin Powell and made an impassioned plea to the United Nations Security Council to force Saddam to disarm or face the consequences. They agreed, and Bush came away with unanimous adoption of the now famous Resolution 1441, which did just that.

So the President announced to the nation, to the world, and to Saddam Hussein, "if you don't disarm, we will disarm you." And he began putting the largest military force the world has ever seen on Iraq's borders to back up his threat. Bush thought Saddam would flee into friendly exile, we would go in and destroy his weapons of mass destruction, and everything would be just fine.

But the wheels of support began to fall off when it was discovered that the president of France, Jacques Chirac, has had a 20-year relationship with Saddam, both personally and financially, and was continuing to supply arms and munitions to Saddam as recently as this past January! Not wishing to upset his arms dealings, Chirac took it upon himself to lead in opposing the U.S. position of disarming Saddam. Germany joined in for domestic political reasons, as did GW's "close personal friend," Vladimir Putin of Russia. Joining in opposition here at home are the Democrat Party, and other ragtag protest groups.

So where are we now? At the insistence of Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush has returned to the UN for still another vote of confidence. But it won't happen this time. With a quarter million troops on "hair trigger" readiness, and announced plans to expend more ordinance within the first 6 hours than were expended by both sides during the entirety of World War II, Bush has huffed and he has puffed. He even sent Saddam a picture of our largest bomb being detonated somewhere in the Florida Everglades. But his huffing and his puffing didn't blow down a single one of Saddam's nineteen castles. Encouraged by the recent domestic and foreign opposition to Bush's plan, Saddam has simply called his bluff.

Clearly Bush still does not want this war. It just isn't in his nature. But it's too late now. The die is cast. Bush didn't intend it this way. He counted on bipartisan support at home, and friendly support abroad. It didn't happen. And he is now going to learn the bitter lesson that in today's world, there is no bipartisan loyalty to the President, even in a time of national crisis, and no amount of foreign aid will secure the support of sovereign nations such as France, Germany, or Russia if they feel their own political or financial interests may be placed in jeopardy.

So Bush is going it alone. And though we are now in the heat of battle, his reluctance to use the might at his command is still evident. Instead of the vast "shock and awe" air armada Secretary Rumsfeld has promised, Bush has chosen a preemptive surgical attack on a command bunker said to house Saddam and his head henchmen. As I write this, it is not known if his gambit worked, but there is evidence of a lack of Iraqi central military command, and only sparse military resistance as U.S. Marines and other military units race toward the capital of Baghdad. If Bush is successful in ridding our nation and the world of the evil of Saddam with only minimal loss of life and expenditure of material, look for a mad rush of these same countries, France, Germany, etc., and these same political foes, Senator Daschle, et al., to get in on the spoils, and to claim a portion of the victory for themselves. Such is the nature of man.

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