(via Instapundit) Pete Du Pont, former governor of Delaware published this column on Opinion Journal which echos many of the conclusions in my Future of History post.
Dupont argues that the real goal is cultural change:
...In taking on Saddam Hussein, there is a broader agenda, something of more lasting significance than eliminating the immediate threat posed by his weapons of mass destruction. America's long-term goal is to change the dynamics of the Middle East, the most dangerous region in the world today. The fundamentalist and authoritarian cultures of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority are a serious danger--Not greater than Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia in their time perhaps, but the greatest challenge to the peace and prosperity of the world community today.
Dupont also reiterates the utility of barking loudly as a primary tool for securing the peace. He cites a critical historical example from the cold war:
...They remind me of the violent European reaction in the 1983, when Ronald Reagan decided to put Pershing missiles in Europe to counter the Soviet military threat. Millions of people marched in Germany, France and England, morally equating America with the U.S.S.R. The protesters demanded unilateral disarmament (the actual program of the German Social Democrats) and recommended a "security partnership" with the Soviet Union. In retrospect, it is easy to see who was right and who was wrong. Six years later the U.S.S.R. imploded and Europe was free of the greatest threat to its future liberty. In a few months it will become even clearer that the American left is as wrong in 2002 as the European left was in 1983.
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