U.S. Policy in Iraq
April 13, 2004

IRVINE, CA--Last week the U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, asked that military operations be suspended to facilitate humanitarian access and to attempt talks with the insurgents. This cease-fire, though still in effect, collapsed when the Marines were attacked.

"Mr. Bremer's decision," says Dr. Yaron Brook, "is a paradigm of what is morally wrong with U.S. policy in Iraq: we are trying to fight a 'compassionate war.'

"Assuming that the cease-fire was not a military ploy to gain the element of surprise, we--and the insurgents--can only assume that Mr. Bremer wants to allow food and medicine to reach the 'innocent' victims, and that he believes the killers are open to reason." What is wrong with that?

Here are some of Dr. Brook's moral objections:

· When faced with enemies bent on killing us, the only moral course is to ruthlessly destroy them.

· When anyone in Iraq takes up arms against the protectors of freedom--our soldiers--he has renounced reason and it is self-destructive to negotiate with him; it only inspires him to kill more.

· A significant portion of the population in Iraq supports the insurgents: they are not innocent victims; moreover, any suffering or death caused by crushing the insurgency is the moral  responsibility of the insurgents, not our soldiers.

· A U.S. soldier's only job is to protect our freedom: it is morally perverse to put his life at risk in the name of compassion for his would-be killers--or the victims of those killers.

America must make its self-interest--and that of its soldiers--its only concern in Iraq. Mr. Bremer's immoral attempt to defeat our enemies with compassion can have only one result: more of our soldiers will needlessly return home in body bags.

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Dr. Yaron Brook is available for interviews. To interview Dr. Brook or book him for your show, please e-mail media@aynrandcenter.org

For more articles by Yaron Brook, and his bio, click here.