InstaPundit has a very interesting
piece on Ares
and Athena at war. He takes a section from Neal Stephenson’s brilliant novel
Cryptonomicon and illustrates a very important point about the nature of
Western war versus the kind of warfare fought by the Arab states.
It raises a very important point. The war we’re fighting is essentially a
defensive one. Despite those critics on the left, we’re not going after Iraq for
oil or for national glory, when we do attack Iraq it will be because Iraq
represents a real threat to our nation. Yes, there’s quite a bit of
realpolitik that will happen as well, but the crux of this entire issue
is that of Iraq obtaining nuclear or biological weapons. (He undoubtedly still
possesses chemical weapons.) If that scenario were to play out, it would forever
damage the balance of power in the Middle East, and could very well lead to
those weapons being used, if not by Saddam, then by one of his even more
bloodthirsty sons. That is a situation which the rest of the world can ill
afford.
