20 Mar 2003 05:10 GMT
A World Made Unsafe for Dictators

The initial half-hour "decapitation" strike on Baghdad ended a few hours ago. There are already protest demonstrations in Indonesia, and there probably will be more in Europe and the US when the sun comes up. If there is any failure in the attack on Iraq, it will probably be that the US will be perceived as a dangerous, arrogant bully.

It's a shame, because if the military action and the rebuilding of Iraq are successful, we may still lose the greatest prize: a world made unsafe for warlords and tyrants. This is what the perfidy of France, Russia and Germany may deny us.

It could have been otherwise. Standing together, the advanced countries could have made it clear to the world's peoples that democracies can replace dictatorships. We could have told the nascent Hitlers and Saddam Husseins that they would be stopped.

The most likely outcome is that the Iraq campaign will succeed, but the US will become even more a global cop, and will be even more resented and attacked. If this is the best we can acheive, I'm proud that my country can do it, but I hope that the other democracies will understand that they must share this task

- Andrew Hadley

Links:
"Decapitation Strike" story

© 2003 Halway Systems

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