Hole in the Wall
The Hunted Saves the Hunter
RECEIVED Fri., Dec. 26, 2003
Dear Editor,
James Baker, formerly of the George W. Bush administration, was recently tapped by our current president to go to U.S. allies who were unsupportive of the Iraq war and beg for more cash and debt relief for the war effort. Last week the president shot Baker in the back and seemingly crippled his mission with the decision to exclude the aforementioned countries from contracts to rebuild Iraq. International reaction to this decision was unanimous in both outrage and disbelief. The fact that we arrogant Americans would turn away allies after being wrong about the need to go in, getting bogged down in a guerilla war, and having to send our country into debt that will burden our grandchildren, that we would turn down forgiveness and help from our friends after being so wrong in so many ways, stupefies them. The likelihood of Baker having any success in his endeavor in the shadow of the contracts decision was nil.
Enter Saddam Hussein. Pulled from a hole in Adwar, Iraq, Saturday, he took that bullet for James Baker and the president. He was caught without resistance despite being armed with a pistol, some other weapons, and $750,000 in cash. The news of the former Iraqi leader's capture had both the French and German ambassadors hurrying onto national news networks to praise the capture and to protest that last week's fury had always been an attitude of "let bygones be bygones." This political capitulation to a moral principal when we should be the ones with hand held out in humility reeks of irony. Now, thanks to the very man the president has been trying to destroy, James Baker can go to Europe and maintain the arrogant American posture and likely get what the president wants. The hunted has saved the hunter, for now.
James Baker, formerly of the George W. Bush administration, was recently tapped by our current president to go to U.S. allies who were unsupportive of the Iraq war and beg for more cash and debt relief for the war effort. Last week the president shot Baker in the back and seemingly crippled his mission with the decision to exclude the aforementioned countries from contracts to rebuild Iraq. International reaction to this decision was unanimous in both outrage and disbelief. The fact that we arrogant Americans would turn away allies after being wrong about the need to go in, getting bogged down in a guerilla war, and having to send our country into debt that will burden our grandchildren, that we would turn down forgiveness and help from our friends after being so wrong in so many ways, stupefies them. The likelihood of Baker having any success in his endeavor in the shadow of the contracts decision was nil.
Enter Saddam Hussein. Pulled from a hole in Adwar, Iraq, Saturday, he took that bullet for James Baker and the president. He was caught without resistance despite being armed with a pistol, some other weapons, and $750,000 in cash. The news of the former Iraqi leader's capture had both the French and German ambassadors hurrying onto national news networks to praise the capture and to protest that last week's fury had always been an attitude of "let bygones be bygones." This political capitulation to a moral principal when we should be the ones with hand held out in humility reeks of irony. Now, thanks to the very man the president has been trying to destroy, James Baker can go to Europe and maintain the arrogant American posture and likely get what the president wants. The hunted has saved the hunter, for now.
John McJunkin