by John M. Curtis
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Copyright February 25, 2002
All Rights Reserved.

hinking about the unthinkable, when Islamic kamikazes demolished the World Trade Center on 9/11, the White House realized that U.S. was indeed vulnerable to nuclear attack. Long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles were no longer the only delivery system. Had Osama bin Laden possessed an atomic bomb, he would have used it. Casualties and property damage would have been unimaginable. As it was, Sept. 11 cost over 3,000 deaths, billions in property damage, and an estimated 94,000 jobs in New York City alone. Now conducting an exhaustive review of Iraq policy, the administration prepares to send Vice President Dick Cheney on a whirlwind 9-nation Mideast tour in early March to notify Arab leaders about U.S. intentions. Since 9/11, the White House turned the corner, no longer believing that Saddam Hussein could be contained or placated. With the Afghanistan situation winding down, planners are busy working on the Iraq solution. When Richard Butler's team of U.N. weapons' inspectors were booted out of Iraq in 1998, time was no longer on our side.

      Even reluctant hawks like Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) now believe that Saddam must go. Powell acknowledged in congressional hearings that President Bush is considering "the most serious set of options that one might imagine," promising that "no stone will be left unturned." While confrontation may be a ways off, the planning is now underway to depose the Iraqi despot. "There's an evolving consensus that a sizable military activity will be required," said an unnamed, high-placed White House source, suggesting that a military solution is imminent. Diplomatic pressure hasn't worked so far. Opposition groups like the U.S.-funded Iraqi National Congress haven't done enough to mount a serious threat to Saddam's power. With the latest accounting scandal, the Pentagon doesn't have much confidence in INC chief Ahmad Chalibi, leading the White House to take over. Since 1998, the CIA believes that Hussein marched ahead with biological, chemical and nuclear weapons—including long-range ballistic missiles.

      Placing Iraq at dead center on Bush's axis of evil, Saddam would do almost anything to retaliate against the U.S.. No one really knows Iraq's link to 9/11, but suicide-hijacker, ringleader Mohammed Atta's Oct. 2000 meeting in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence agent looks suspicious. Saddam offered no condolences after Sept. 11. He and Bin Laden seemed pleased that the U.S. got what it deserved for supporting Israel and keeping troops on the Arabian Peninsula. Global terrorists like Osama bin Laden find support from rogue regimes seeking to inflict maximum damage on the U.S.. Now hiding somewhere between Iraq and Iran, Bin Laden knows how to buy special treatment from Iranian military, now destabilizing southern Afghanistan in the Herat region. No longer consumed with finding Bin Laden, the Pentagon is busy picking its next targets. Nowhere is more ripe than Iraq. With time running out, Saddam's weapons of mass destruction now represent a direct and provocative threat that can't be tolerated. Atomic terrorism is on its way.

      When the U.S. completed its mission at the end of the Gulf War, marching to Baghdad would have ruptured a delicate coalition. Going by the book, then President Bush correctly looked for an exit strategy, despite current regrets that he should have finished off Saddam. Nation building wasn't in the cards then. Now routing the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the U.S. military finds itself in limbo. Driving Al Qaeda and the Taliban underground confounds the White House exit strategy. Newly minted Prime Minister Hamid Karzai only controls parts of Kabul. With Pashtun warlords, loyal to the Taliban, carving up the country, the military rightly worries about getting out. So far, no major calamities—like Beirut—have occurred. But 2,500 U.N. peacekeepers won't prevent Afghanistan from returning to a bloody civil war. It's also clear that at some point Operation Enduring Freedom must end. Not because it's incomplete, but precisely because the mission maxed out. Whether or not the U.S. gets Bin Laden or Mullah Mohammed Omar can't set the timetable for getting out.

      Still digging out of the rubble in New York, the U.S. can't afford another terrorist attack at home or abroad. Bin Laden and other global terrorists serve as the hit men for rogue nations like Iraq. While other nations harbor terrorists, rogue nations, actively developing weapons of mass destruction with known hatred toward the U.S., must be preempted before the next disaster. When Israel knocked out an Iraqi nuclear reactor, it was a successful preemptive strike. Leveling the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon proved the U.S. vulnerability to global terrorism. Now on American shores, intelligence and law enforcement agencies alone can't prevent another incident. Domestic agencies can't stop madmen from manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and selling them to global terrorists. Only an alert and responsive military can react to potential threats from rogue nations. Regardless of the economic and cultural interests of other nations, the U.S. must act in its own defense—even unilaterally.

      Racing against time, the U.S. can no longer placate maniacal terrorists and tyrants hell bent on destroying the American way of life. Sept. 11 lives as a bitter reminder of the high price paid for freedom. When Osama bin Laden was implicated in the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, the U.S. should have leapt into preemptive action. Since the bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 and attack on the guided missile frigate Cole in 2000, the U.S. has been under Bin Laden's siege. Only when terrorism arrived on American shores did the White House finally take decisive action. "The most fearsome of these threats," said President Jimmy Carter in 1980, "is if one of these nations that believes in terrorism as a policy gets a hold of nuclear weapons." Whether Iraq already has the A-bomb is anyone's guess. But since 9/11, it's abundantly clear that the U.S. can't wait to find out. While the Arab world frets over life without Saddam, the U.S. can no longer sit on its hands.

About the Author

John M. Curtis is editor of OnlineColumnist.com and columnist for the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He's director of a Los Angeles think tank specializing in political consulting and strategic communication. He's author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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