In praise of Bush and Blair

THE EDITOR: Recently a correspondent (in another daily) wrote an article about the diversification of the people in the United States. I was impressed with her observation. Unfortunately she spoils her article with her comments on “Rambo Bushes and Powells.”

Like many of my friends she has not been able to take the facts she has written and think things through. I may have reservations on Bush’s military action in Iraq, but I understand the necessity of it. It would have been better if it had had the UN blessing, but the UN consists of a number of countries with dubious legality. As the author pointed out the United States is really a true UN. This is a country made up of people from all over the world. They are free and can better their lives without bias, providing they obey the law. The law they themselves have made based on the wishes of the majority of the citizens. No matter of creed or race, every one has a say in forming the government to lead them. If they don’t like what their government is doing they can change it. Never in the history of the modern world has there been such free country.

These “UN” people were grossly shocked by the attack of 9/11. They hurt and hurt bad. But what is worse, perhaps in their naivete, they could not begin to comprehend it. Bush declared war on those who were responsible, and the countries harbouring or sponsoring them, rightly calling them countries of “evil.” Bush cleverly moved the front of this war out of the US soil and brought the fight into the countries most responsible for promoting this evil. I hear many people making ridiculous statements regarding the need for more oil or the desire to dominate the Arab states, or get at the Muslims.

This only shows ignorance and like I said the inability to think things through. Many well known journalists make the common mistake of choosing and reporting only the facts that best suit their theories and consequently, arrive at a distorted conclusion. Much is said about not finding weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Perhaps it was wrong for Bush and Blair to use their supposed existence as reason for going to war. But they realised that it would be difficult to convince people of the necessity of ridding the world of terrorism without something simple that a naive world could understand. But any thinking person should realise that the true weapons of mass distraction are the terrorists.

More than 17,000 people have been trained in terrorism by al Qaeda and have returned to their respective countries. Only 3,000 have been located. A group of people, no matter what their supposed cause whose main mode of attack is to use suicide to kill and maim innocent people has to be sick, sick! The American presence in Iraq is like the proverbial carrot, attracting these terrorists from deferent countries like legionnaires to practice what they have learned. These are the true WMD. We have to thank Blair, Bush and their respective people for having the foresight to see that the world is teetering on chaos, and having the guts to do something about it.

RICHARD JEARY
Maraval