The recent "Axis of Evil" column elicited many letters from readers. They were perversely congratulatory saying: finally, you've got it; Bush and his friends are fighting for Big Oil and this whole Iraq business is about that. I, on the other hand, do not recall saying that at all. [Click HERE]

Neither the American president nor the leader of any modern nation could allow their national economies to be held hostage by a cartel of oil producing countries. And so, the war against Iraq is about oil. But, as we have written before and as President Bush declared in his State of the Union message, it is not solely about oil. [Click HERE & HERE for prior insights.] Here are two excerpts from Mr. Bush's speech:

Free people will set the course of history.

I have a message for the oppressed people of Iraq. Your enemy is not surrounding your country - your enemy is ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation.

To some, those words will not be convincing; rebuttable rhetoric and little more they will say. Perhaps. But try these excerpts from another well-known speech:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it.*

Thus Mr. Bush is not historically alone in his pursuit of freedom for other peoples of the world. Nor is he alone today. After all, Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic and Denmark have each pledged troops as well as other support with us against Iraq. Most East European nations are with us. And Russia has said it is changng its view based on the recent Blix Report to the United Nations. China has signalled it will not veto action. Bush, along with most other modern American presidents, sees America leading oppressed countries to liberty for the benefit of the people of those countries.

A pertinent, initial question is why? Because it is the right thing to do. The Declaration of Independence doesn't apply just to Americans. If we believe that people are created equal and with certain unalienable rights, then we must believe that Iraqis are created equal to us and that Iraqis have the same unalienable rights. It doesn't mean that we must go to war with every oppressive country; the Declaration is not a mandate for national suicide. Its command is not all war, all the time. Where, however, there is a confluence of reasons, opportunities and means, then America should act.

Clearly Mr. Bush believes that juncture has been reached; that the time is now and that Iraq is the place. My fellow democrats generally agree with him as to the place. They merely quibble over whether the time is now or after the next election. Some Americans do not believe we should invade Iraq at all. Prominent among them are, for example, Pat Buchanan and Susan Sarandon. Their reasons range from Iraq not being a threat to the United States to a preference for an isolationist foreign policy.

Others, like A.N.S.W.E.R., are old-time communist groups which stage-manage demonstrations into which they gull Americans who truly believe the Bush policy wrong. Those Americans, by the way, are exercising two of their unalienable rights: freedom of speech and freedom of assembly which, were an Iraqi to attempt either certain death would promptly follow.

Thus, while oil is an important reason; more so is the freedom which will be available to the new Iraq. As we have written before, the Bush strategy is also about destabilizing the region, namely Iran and Saudi Arabia.[Please CLICK HERE] Diplomats wring their manicured hands over destabilization. They're always for the status quo; it's usually comfortable for them. Jetting around the world, dining on poached salmon and having Four Seasons hoteliers jumping to attention beats mowing the lawn in Stuttgart while the Frau whips up sauerkraut for dinner.

Radical Islam is a threat to Western civilization, period. That clique hates us and Western countries because we are infidels, literally. With Iraq, Bush has the opportunity to convert the oil producing Islamic countries into modern democracies, not hideouts, training grounds and financiers for terrorist Islamics. In one long stroke, the world can be changed for the better, much, much better.

Having set forth the answers as to the "Why" question, Mr. Bush must face the "How" question. Hussein has been skating around the 1991 disarmament agreement for 12 years; he lies, denies, stalls, ducks and weaves. In short, he's buying time to be able to be essentially impervious, to be seemingly eternal and have power unto perpetuity. Such is an understandable goal of every dictator and politician. Few enjoy leaving the trappings of power which is addictive, like heroin or dry martinis.

U.N. resolutions are nice but they do not change regimes. Resolutions never work against dictators whether the United Nations or the League of Nations. The latter's resolutions were ignored by Hitler who bet that the French would not fight when he moved troops into the Rhineland. The result of France's appeasement and cowardice was abject surrender a few years later. What works best is force and our team always wins. So do the people of the losing country. Who would you rather be: a German or Japanese whose country was beaten to a pulp in World War II or a South Vietnamese now living under the rule of Jane Fonda's friends?

No, Peace through War is the answer, the last resort, but the answer. For America, war always works. We never lose and the conquered are always better off after we win. If you don't believe me, you could look it up.

*John F. Kennedy; Inaugural Address; 1961, wherein he also said:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.

Had he lived, Kennedy would be 86 this May 19th.