MARINA DEL REY, CA--The weapons programs of Saddam Hussein pose such a threat to U.S. security that the Bush administration is considering overthrowing the Iraqi dictator. Robert W. Tracinski was a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute between 1997 and 2004.
Our Arab and European allies, however, are alarmed by this prospect. Should we risk their disapproval--or should we risk the lives of thousands of Americans?
"Who would regard this as a choice worth agonizing over?" asks Robert Tracinski, senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute and columnist for Creators Syndicate.
The American press has begun just such agonizing, according to Tracinski. The media's typical approach, he notes, is to give no description of Hussein's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs; no discussion of the danger to Israel, to American bases and allies abroad, let alone to millions of Americans at home--if Hussein's weapons programs were to succeed. Why the silence? Because "the objective threat posed by Iraq is overshadowed, in their minds, by a more important consideration: the feelings and opinions of Europe, the Arabs, and the 'world community.' To these critics, the possibility that tens of thousands of Americans could die in a new terrorist attack seems less real or urgent than the possibility that other nations might disapprove of us."
Tracinski emphasized that the facts are inescapable: "weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorist regimes are a real threat--and the contrary view of 'world opinion' has no power to change that fact. President Bush seems to grasp this reality. His critics are doing their best to evade it."