Through a glass darkly

In yet another blow to the people who complain that the policy of the United States is mistaken, the delegates of a constitutional assembly in Afghanistan have adopted a new charter, clearing the first hurdle to democratic elections in that country. In Iraq the coalition government is looking to turn over control of that country 100 percent to the Iraqi people by June of this year.

In contrast the United Nations is no closer now to clearing up the mess in the former Yugoslavia. Slobidan Milosivich is still on trial, and will be for quite some time.

The U.N. still has a military presence in that country after more than five years of effort. The U.N. failed to take any action in the East African nation of Mali where the Tutsi's and the Hutu's were engaged in ethnic cleansing as bad as anywhere in the world.

Libya has taken a giant step towards normalizing relations with the U.S. by agreeing to inspections of it's programs for developing weapons of mass destruction. This is a result of two things: 1. George W. Bush's stance against terrorism in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, and 2. diplomacy, backed up by a determined U.S. president.

Hate-filled liberals like George Soros are reduced to invective-filled speech and libelous ads comparing George W. Bush to Hitler. These die-hards are faced with the fact their world view is dangerously out of sync with reality.

Soros and his ilk cannot win a fair debate on the virtues of their position. They would cave in to the craven U.N. and try to talk vicious killers like Saddam out of hurting others.

The United States, under George W. Bush, policy is successfully using multilateral cooperation with a coalition of the willing to face down dangers threatening all.

The results speak for themselves. While we tried for over a decade to negotiate with Saddam and work within the United Nations to bring him into the fold of civilized nations without success, less than a year after we forged a coalition with other nations to take on the "Butcher of Baghdad" we have managed to bring him to justice and prepare his nation to once again join with other countries as an equal.

To mangle an old saying, you get a lot more with a hand stretched out in friendship and an army to back you up than with a hand stretched out alone.

Howard Dean can whine about the presidents policy but that's about all he can do. The policy is monumentally effective against brutal dictators and for all his rhetoric Dean cannot change that fact. Soros for all his money cannot turn the success of Operation Iraqi Freedom into the quagmire that the wars opponents proclaimed from the day it started to the present time.

It's amazing what has been accomplished in Iraq. For all of the money invested in the Marshall Plan after World War II Germany and Japan faced years of reconstruction before they were in as good a shape as Iraq is in less than a year.

A while back Tom Hanks was proclaiming the veterans of World War II "The Greatest Generation."

While I take nothing away from the toils and sacrifice faced by those who served during that war I am faced with the fact that, based on results, our present armed forces deserve that title for the swift action that has resulted in three governments, right in the epicenter of the world's most dangerous region, moderating their behavior.

We, the United States, ought to send the United Nations a bill for the service we have done mankind.

Instead we will have to be satisfied with the hatred of those who assist, through their inaction, tyrants, murderers, rapists, and other criminal leaders.