PRE-INVASION THOUGHTS ON IRAQ 12/24/02

Waiting For the Straw That Breaks the Camel's Back Christopher K. Leavitt 12/24/02

We must assume that war is inevitable. More specifically, that war with Iraq is inevitable. What we are waiting for is the straw that breaks the camel's back. A reporter on ABC news, reporting on the downing of the predator drone, finished his report by saying that the Bush administration wouldn't use this as a "pretext" for war. This illustrates one point, which is how misguided the mainstream media's distinction between the "war on terrorism" vs. the "war on Iraq" is. Saddam Hussein is a traditional Stalinist leader, a thug who seized power through murder, and maintains dominance of his country through terror. Because of the international community's intervention (and Israel's 1980 bombing of his nuclear weapons plant at Osirak), he has not become the next hitler yet. Make no mistake, he has allied himself, however tenuously, with al queda. In fact, he is building TWO of the biggest mosques in the world to attract the religious fanatics. It is said that the mosques are dedicated to Saddam, no doubt with the mandatory huge paintings of him on the walls, in contradiction of Islamic teaching. The fact is that these al queda terrorists care about as little for their god Allah, at least at the leadership level. Simply observe the remains of Osama and Mullah Omar's compounds in Afghanistan, and you can see the same "blasphemous" (to Islam) murals. They use terror, money, and even religion to control populations, great and small, for their own enrichment, at the expense of both their own people and the rest of the world.
In today's globalized culture, this must stop. Western culture has it's problems, but at least it's open to considering new ideas from other cultures. The supression of individual rights, whether economic, political or religious (or anti-religious, for those without faith) should be opposed aggressively, and the first "target of opportunity" to rid the world of this cancer is Iraq, with Iran hopefully already in the planning stage.

We should not be waiting for "the straw that breaks the camel's back"; it fell on Sept. 11, 2001. Now it's time to act.

OPEN LETTER TO RUSH LIMBAUGH

LEAVITT on LIMBAUGH: 10/03/03 Back in 1992, after losing my nightclub business, I was down and out. Around this time, I had one of my drunken political "debates" with my friend Matt "Hoops" Reilly, at Clarke's bar. I, being a Liberal Democrat then, was defending "slick Wiily" Clinton as "our" version of "tricky Dick" Nixon, and correctly predicted that he would not only be elected, but would get away with "whitewater", the "bimbo eruptions", and anything else that the Republicans could throw at him. Then Matt asked me if I had ever listened to Rush Limbaugh. "What, that racist, bigoted homophobe?" -or words to that effect, was my reply. "How can you say that if you never listened to him?" was the comeback, after I admitted that I hadn't. Well, it took me a few months, but I found his radio show on WABC 77 (NYC). I listened to him, this brash Conservative, with an open mind. I was astounded with his obviously tounge-in-cheek "arrogance", and his extreme "political incorrectness"(at least to a Liberal). Rush first weaned me off of the daytime soap operas, then inspired me to beat my crack addiction. The critical change came when I thought about how down and out I was. After blowing all of my inheritance money, I never turned to the government for assistance after things went bad; I was fortunate enough to have friends who helped me through that difficult period. This is exactly Rush's message, that we should not depend on government to turn our fortunes around. In fact, the NY State government (a TRULY LIBERAL ESTABLISHMENT, even with a "Republican" Governor) sucked the life out of the one business I did own. It was like a slow-motion epiphany. I started seeing events, both in my life and in the world at large, in a larger historical context. The more I listened to Rush, the more he made sense to me. I can't say I agree with everything Rush says, but I love the way he frames an issue. I have been listening to him since '92 or '93, and the only "preaching" I remember was for self-reliance and the 3 F's (FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND FAITH), as opposed to reliance on government! The logical extention of this is to defeat the Democrats, and this is how I became a Republican, thanks to Rush Limbaugh. Now that Rush is at the center of the media spotlight for his drug use, I think that my story is especially poignant. I've kept act together for over six years, and I bet Rush will be able to beat his addiction as well, with the help of those same 3 F's. I, for one, haven't lost faith in him. He loses no credibility with me for having human flaws. He was one of many factors that helped me get my life back together. I hope that I can be a factor in helping him get his life back on track, too. As a member of Rush 24/7, I'm sending my story to Rush on his "double secret" email, and hopefully he'll read it eventually, and take inspiration as I did from him. GOOD LUCK, RUSH! -FROM CHRIS LEAVITT