Harkin: Iraq war ousted paper tiger
By JANE NORMAN
Register Washington Bureau
04/11/2003
——————————————————————————–
Washington, D.C. - The relatively quick fall of Baghdad shows that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was a “paper tiger” rather than a major threat to world peace, Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa said Thursday.
“What we were told and what you saw in the press last fall and earlier this year is that he had a massive war machine,” said Harkin, the most outspoken critic of the war in Iraq among members of the Iowa congressional delegation.
“It looks now like this was just a Third World country - there were people fighting with tennis shoes on, on the Iraqi side,” Harkin told reporters. “I don’t know what else we’re going to find, but they didn’t fly even one airplane in the air. They had almost nothing.
“So if they were that weak, where we could just roll over them like that, tell me again how he was such a big threat in the past?” the senator added.
Harkin voted for a congressional resolution authorizing use of force before last year’s election, but earlier this year became increasingly critical of the move toward war, saying President Bush was not consulting enough with Congress or extending diplomatic efforts.
Harkin said officials might uncover definitive evidence of weapons of mass destruction that Saddam planned to employ. “But his ability to really do much - it looks like he was a paper tiger,” Harkin said.
How was he such a big threat? Are you serious, Mr. Harkin? Were you hiding under a rock in the Fall of 2001, I’m real curious. When a handful of determined Islamic Fundamentalists can kill 3,000 Americans, massively affect one of the strongest economies in the world and put the world in a perpetual state of fear … with a couple of one-way plane tickets…
…imagine what they could do with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
Sure Saddam might not have been able to launch a missle that would reach the U.S…. or launch his air force in an attack on our mainland… or send an invading army into America from Canada or Mexico….
…but to say he was no threat is a completely moronic and very naive statement.
Why did the Iraqi army roll over like they did? Because the U.S. military is the most technology-advanced, most well-trained, best prepared military in the world. Just because we made quick work of soldiers, most of whom turned out unwilling to fight for the regime, doesn’t mean the regime was not a threat to world peace.
It sure is easy to play Monday-morning quarterback in this situation… now that the hard work has been taken care of by those with character. But ask yourself…. why would we send in a smaller army in order to prolong the fight and risk more casualties in order to “play fairly”? That’s just stupid.
Mr. Harkin, you just take comfort in your stance that things could’ve been done differently while you’re stuck in traffic in your Mercedes, enjoying the peace that comes with the downfall of a terroristic regime capable of producing weapons to destroy hundred of thousands, if not millions, of families in a split second. Feel secure in your position that you would’ve done things differently to produce a different outcome….which, by the way, I’m curious how things could’ve turned out better… Wrap yourself in the warm fuzzy feeling that you didn’t have to make the tough choices that resulted in the right actions. Cover yourself in the knowledge that while some civilians and military personnel wouldn’t have perished but for this war, so too would many innocent civilians still remain in torture hospitals, massacre jails and shallow graves… all because Saddam was a paper tiger… a weak regime not capable of hurting anyone… a figment of imagination for the Bush administration who was asked why dots weren’t connected prior to 9/11 and then told not to connect the dots when it comes to the Axis of Evil.
Mr. Harkin, please do us all a favor and simply shut the f— up. You’re hindsight is a waste of time and your political envy is obvious to anyone with a pulse.
