On to Baghdad! Liberate Iraq

The Center for Security Policy today urged the Bush Administration and its coalition partners to carry the campaign forward from the liberation of Kuwait — now nearly completed — to the liberation of Iraq, itself.

The Center believes that President Bush has acted properly and courageously to date in rejecting calls from Moscow and elsewhere for a cease-fire under conditions that would leave incomplete the dismantling of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime and its remaining military power. The danger remains, however, that the Iraqi despot could deny the allies the opportunity to realize this critical objective were he at last to agree unconditionally and formally to the terms narrowly defined by pertinent U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"Too much is riding on the outcome of the war with Iraq to rely on indirect factors — like the ignominy of accepting dictated terms — to bring down Saddam Hussein’s tyrannical regime," said Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., the Center’s director. "President Bush would be risking everything accomplished to date if he now fails to help the Iraqi people rid themselves of a despot whose megalomaniacal ambitions have brought them such grief."

The reality is that brute force has kept Saddam Hussein and his ruling clique in power for over almost two decades. Even if humiliated, even if clearly disgraced, what will likely determine Saddam’s future ability to threaten Western allies and interests in the region will be his ability to continue to exercise brute force.

The Center believes that — as positive as the wholesale destruction of Iraq’s offensive military potential is — if Saddam’s police state apparatus is not similarly destroyed, the Iraqi people will be denied an opportunity for self-governance too long denied them. For Iraq, this would be a tragically lost opportunity; for the other nations of the region, it would probably represent a precursor to a future conflict.

Accordingly, before accepting any cease-fire, the coalition should determine whether Saddam Hussein intends to perpetuate his rule and preclude internationally monitored elections to determine a successor regime. If so, the Center urges the Bush Administration and the allied powers to press on to Baghdad. In effecting the liberation of Iraq and its capital, the coalition would be taking an indispensable step toward promoting peace and security in the region, as provided for by the U.N. Security Council mandate of last year.