BUSH MAKING BEST OF SECOND CHANCE

April 12, 2003

What if you struck out in your first-ever wiffle at-bat and were doomed to strike out every at-bat for the rest of your wiffle ball career? Or, even worse, what if the first time you fielded a ground ball you picked it up and threw it to the wrong base? Then every time a ball was hit to you had to throw it to that base just because you did the first time? Maybe you didn't know better, still, or maybe you knew better but didn't want to admit that you were wrong the first time so you kept throwing it to the wrong base to re-affirm your initial decision.

It seems ludicrous and might even bring you to a chuckle to think that someone would be so bull-headed as to actually think confirming a wrong decision is a way to save face. It's not unrealistic, however. Anti-war protesters are employing this logic time and time again.

In a roundabout way, yes, the United States supported Saddam Hussein a couple or three decades ago. As it turned out, we considered him the lesser of two evils and you definitely can argue the decision now.

Twelve years ago when Hussein sent his troops into Kuwait we had the opportunity to take him out of power and we didn't. Should we have done so in hindsight? Yes. That's without the aid of vision correction, too.

In the years since the first Gulf War we have asked for access for inspectors, we have occassionally pounded their sand with cruise missiles, and we have watched human dignity go by the wayside in a country where the political leader hoards any wealth that enters the country while, at the very best, ignoring his people minus his 100 or so closest friends. That's right, "at the very best." At worst it's imprisonment, torture, rape, public executions, and human shredders. Or maybe that isn't the worst of it. Perhaps the worst of it is waking up every morning and knowing that you are just a replaceable cog in a dictator's regime. Maybe all of the things that could happen to you for refusing to be one of those cogs aren't quite as bad as being the cog. Yet, until recently, no nation has come forward to point out the fact that these aren't parts to a machine. These are people of no less importance than ourselves. No less important than even our president.

There are many reasons why, despite our foolishness in the past, this is a battle worth fighting. You might say that Iraq is no threat to the United States or that the only thing driving this war is oil. But you cannot deny that the greatest result of this war has nothing to do with the people of the United States. Sorry, but "we've known this was going on for 20 years and didn't do anything about it" isn't a functional excuse to stand still.

One Iraqi civilian was accidentally shot last week by a coalition-force soldier and said there was no need to apologize because the the coalition forces were doing the right thing.

There's dancing in the streets. Saddam statues are falling. People are removing their shoes to hit those statues in a demeaning way (specific to their culture).

Thank God for second chances -- a second chance to throw the ball to the right base, a second chance to restore dignity in human beings in a place that barely knows what human dignity is anymore, and a second chance to do the right thing.

In some ways President Bush had to admit that his dad was wrong for bailing out the last time around. In some ways he had to admit that the "last guy" was wrong. Thank God he had the conviction, once and for all of those decisions in the past, to throw the ball to the right base.

-Judd Berthiaume can be reached by clicking here