Ray Malone's Commentary

Japan, like Iraq today, had never been a Democracy before WWII. It was a nation ruled by an Emperor. That Emperor was considered to be GOD on earth. But the military under a weak Emperor actually ruled Japan.

Japanese beliefs were very similar to the Muslim beliefs. They believed that a fighter that died fighting Japan's enemies went straight to heaven. Thus we faced Kamikaze planes that flew huge explosive loads directly into our ships. The Japanese pilot knew he was going to die crashing his plane into one of our ships... but he also believed he would instantly go to heaven. There was evidence that the same Kamikaze mindset was being instilled in those defending the Japanese main land. We would have faced Japanese civilians quite willing to die to kill one or more Americans in our planned invasion from the sea.

We countered that kind of threat by going to a no holds barred means of fighting Japan. We used atomic weapons for the first time. We dropped them on civilian cities with no military value. Americans firmly believed that the only good Jap was a dead Jap. Yes, back then it was perfectly OK to call them Japs. They were portrayed in the media as less than real human beings.. They were portrayed as evil people who showed no mercy and gave none. That was in some respects true. Surrender was considered in the Japanese religion as the most despicable act a soldier could perform. The Japanese believed it was better to die in a hopeless battle than to surrender. They only had contempt for Americans that surrendered to the Japanese military. Most of our troops who surrendered were treated terribly. Many died while in custody.

Now we are apparently going to take on those Sunnis and Shiites that oppose us and want to fight it out. We are going in to take downl both Shiites and Sunnis that want to fight us and each other. American troops will quickly defeat those opponents. We can, if we are willing to use force, bring peace to Baghdad.

We need to remember that for most of the last 2,000 years, what is today called Iraq, was conquered and controlled by several empires and nations. They have nearly 2,000 years of being conquered by other nations. The Roman empire conquered the area before the birth of Christ. The Romans faced terrorists of that day. Iraqis know how to be subservient to conquerors... if the conquerors are unbending.

The Romans solved the problem of attacks on Roman citizens by killing 1,000 natives for every Roman killed. They killed the 1,000 natives that lived nearest to the site of the Roman's death. Soon a Roman could walk unarmed at midnight in complete safety anywhere he wanted to walk. The locals would kill any terrorists that even looked like he might harm a Roman. The Romans in that era knew how to subdue rebellion.

Following the decline the Romans, the Ottoman Empire ruled for well over a thousand years. Their reign ended with the end of WW I. The French and English ruled for the next nearly 40 years. The middle easterners knew better than to take on the British or French during that occupation. They would just be killed in the attempt.

After WWII the British and French granted, independence to the middle eastern nations. It was done under some pressure by the US government.

What we need to do is just take out militant Sunnis and Shiites with our superb military until their is no resistance to government rule. If are not afraid to take of our gloves and go for military victory, it will not take long to subdue the natives of all religious persuasions. Then and only then can we grant the Iraqis control of their own land

It was over 6 years after WWII ended before we granted Japan its independence. For much of that time General Douglas MacArthur ruled Japan with an Iron hand. MacArthur wrote their constitution and designed their government.

What we did in Japan is the way to build a free nation for those who have never experienced freedom. I hope that we do what we did in Japan. If we do we will have a friend in Iraq that is as good a friend as Japan.

It was 5 years after WWII before we let the West Germans Govern themselves. During that 5 year period we lost a few thousand troops to attacks by the former followers of Hitler. But we had lost hundreds and hundreds of thousands in World War II. The few thousand that died from1945 until 1950 did not make a blip on the media screen.

I would ask those that doubt President Bush to read the history of the Lincoln Administration. It took Lincoln three long years of defeat after defeat to finally find a General who knew how to win. But with Grant, Lincoln finally put a man in charge of the military who knew how to win. Lincoln tended to stay with failed generals.

But the success of General Grant took President Lincoln from certain defeat in the 1864 election to certain victory. But the press was still not on Lincoln's side.

After some early Grant victories the media did not praise Grant. In fact the media knew Grant had suffered from alcoholism while in civilian life. So instead of asking Lincoln about Grants victory, they asked Lincoln what he was going to do about Grant's drinking. Lincoln said that in light of Grant's success on the battle field, he was going to ask General Grant what brand of whiskey he drank and then send a case of it to every other one of of his Generals.

If at long last President Bush is successful in rebuilding Iraq, the media and Democrats will be where they were after election day 1864... on the outside looking like those that haven't a clue. Back then Americans were openly proud that they had not openly turned on Abraham Lincoln. It took the media and Democrats years and years to recover.

It could happen again.