Senator Trent Lott on New World, New Friends

New World, New Friends

The United States is by no means "going it alone" by using force to disarm Saddam Hussein, free the Iraqi people and protect America from terrorists. To the contrary, America has found many new friends in what we once would consider very unlikely places. These are historic new alliances which should signal an adjustment of our older transatlantic commitments, and our approach at the United Nations once our brave men and women finish disarming Iraq.

Two of America's old Cold War allies - France and Germany - have chosen to oppose America in this effort to disarm Saddam by force. The French, with well-documented and longstanding economic ties to Iraq's regime have helped protect Saddam from punishment and emboldened him, virtually ensuring this military conflict. However, let's keep this in perspective. Europe is much more than France and Germany. Unlike during the Cold War, the new Europe is composed of many diverse and rapidly developing democratic states. In fact, the majority of European governments, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy and others have acted in support of disarming Saddam by force. This is hardly "going it alone" as is often and incorrectly repeated. It is very significant that - outside of our historic ties with Great Britain and Commonwealth nations like Australia - at this moment some of America's best friends are former communist nations in eastern Europe. These states are now fresh new members of NATO, with fresh memories of totalitarian oppression. With Soviet occupation only about a decade behind them, these countries now share American values of personal freedom, economic freedom and democratic government.

However, in western Europe, with the Cold War over and more than 60 years past World War II, we are seeing that many western Europeans actually want a weaker America, both economically and militarily. In a post 9/11 world, weakness is not an option for America. In the terrorist age, our own homeland is more prone to attack than the heart of Germany. The War on Terrorism knows no international borders or military fronts. Our posture and deployments should reflect that. We should rethink our large military presence in western Europe, still waiting on a Soviet enemy which no longer exists.
Likewise, we should be critical of proposals to close U.S. military bases here at home. If some western Europeans are no longer comfortable with a large American military presence in their communities, then we should consider that folks in Gulfport, Biloxi, Pascagoula, Columbus, Meridian, Hattiesburg and cities throughout America would welcome our military men and women. It may be that America should consider adjusting its large European military posture in favor of smaller, more fluid deployments

As our military fights so bravely in the Gulf, we must remember that the failure of diplomacy to avert this conflict by no means lies with America but with the United Nations Security Council itself. When the fighting is over, we cannot forget that the UN failed to enforce 17 of its own resolutions calling on Saddam to disarm. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that America cannot exist without the UN. I beg to differ. In fact, it is the opposite. If not for America's military pressuring Saddam, the UN inspectors never would have been allowed back in Iraq last fall. Let us not forget that it was U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who stopped the North Korean communists in the 1950s, and our personnel halted genocide in the Balkans during the 1990s. Saddam Hussein also will be stopped thanks again to 250,000 brave Americans in uniform who are disarming Saddam right now. They will come home to a changed world and a safer world, less infected by terrorists and tyrants like Saddam. Yet it must also be a new world, one in which America's alliances, military deployments and our approach to UN-style diplomacy should be fundamentally different.