David Copley: Doing what's necessary to win

What do slavery, Nazism, communism and fascism all have in common? History teaches us that their defeat was enabled through the use of firm military force.

Groups like Penn for Peace love to remind us that war doesn't solve anything. I beg to differ. Nowhere in history can I find an example of a ruthless dictator being defeated by protesters holding hands and singing John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

Luckily for us, President Bush seems to have a better grasp of history than the peace protesters. After 30 years of Saddam Hussein's brutal tyranny, 12 1/2 years of broken promises and endless procrastination on the part of the international community, President Bush's unwavering leadership and the courage of coalition troops will make freedom possible for the oppressed Iraqi people.

Back in the States, his decisive action will also help protect Western civilians from the type of unprovoked attack we all witnessed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Despite the worthiness of the cause, peace activists on our campus continue to call for an immediate cessation to military activities. I'm guessing they haven't thought this one through all the way. You can't put toothpaste back in a tube.

Just ask Najah Neema, a "trembling" Iraqi soldier who ditched his uniform and weapon as American forces approached the southern Iraqi town of Safwan. Neema was quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald telling American Marines, "There, there are Saddam's men, and if you leave me, they will kill me right now."

Oh, but that's OK. We should just stop fighting. Forget what would happen to the thousands of Iraqi soldiers who threw down their arms and begged the American troops to provide them with food and shelter. Peace now, at any price!

And forget what would happen to the villagers like those in Umm Qasr and Safwan who joyously greeted their American liberators. In Safwan, which was liberated on the first day of the campaign, U.S. Marines were greeted by a cheering throng of villagers who immediately teamed up with the Marines to pull down every statue and poster of Saddam Hussein in the town.

Anybody want to guess what would happen to these villagers if the U.S. just stopped fighting now and pulled out of Iraq, as the "peace protesters" suggest? Based on Saddam's track record after Gulf War I, words like torture and ethnic cleansing come to mind.

The students who continue to sit in Houston Hall pointlessly protesting should listen to a group of "recovering peaceniks" who just returned from Baghdad, where they'd been serving as human shields. According to United Press International, the group managed to escape across the Iraqi border on Friday morning. They brought with them 14 hours of uncensored videotape shot without Iraqi government-minders present.

One of the human shields, an American pastor named Kenneth Josephs from the Assyrian Church of the East, told UPI the trip "had shocked me back to reality." Many of the Iraqis interviewed told Josephs "they would commit suicide if American bombing didn't start. They were willing to see their homes demolished to gain their freedom from Saddam's bloody tyranny. They convinced me that Saddam was a monster the likes of which the world had not seen since Stalin and Hitler. He and his sons are sick sadists. Their tales of slow torture and killing made me ill, such as people put in a huge shredder for plastic products, feet first so they could hear their screams as bodies got chewed up from foot to head."

So to all of you who continue to protest against the war, I'd urge you to reconsider your decision. Should we really stop fighting right now? Should we really leave Saddam Hussein in power?

Perhaps instead of boycotting lectures and mindlessly chanting clich‚s, take an extra class in world history. You will soon discover that Saddam is simply following in the well-worn paths of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism.

And to quote our president, Saddam "will follow that path all the way to where it ends, in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."

So, after 30 years of asking nicely for Saddam to stop torturing and slaughtering innocent people, to paraphrase Lennon, "all we are saying is give force a chance."

David Copley is a Wharton sophomore concentrating in Real Estate and Finance from Bellevue, Wash.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.