Disarmament in Iraq

Someday, in the not-too-distant future, Americans need to get out of Iraq.

What we hope to leave behind is a self-governing society in which government is limited in its powers by a constitution and officials trust the people and serve at their pleasure.

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Realistically, however, the biggest threat Iraq faces in the near term is subversion from within and without. There are still a significant number of domestic terrorists and foreign militia groups in the country. Their goal is to overthrow the new Iraqi government and impose some form of anti-American, anti-Western Islamist regime.

That's why it makes absolutely no sense for the U.S.-led coalition to continue its policy of disarming Iraqi citizens.

For more than 200 years, Americans have operated under the constitutionally protected principle that citizens have the right to defend themselves by bearing arms.

Yet, right now, the United States is leading an effort to disarm the Iraqi populace – leaving them at the mercy of groups and individuals who will never willingly give up their guns or a future government that will rule over the people by force.

The disarmament policy is leading two one of two eventual disastrous scenarios:

• the re-imposition of some kind of kind of dictatorship or oppressive authoritarian regime, or;

• the ultimate victory of the domestic terrorists or foreign-sponsored militia groups that will be able to intimidate the Iraqi people with superior firepower;

We need to enlist the help of all the Iraqi people. We need them to fight for their own freedom – a battle that will surely last for many years after American forces leave. The only way they can do that is by being armed and vigilant and by protecting their own rights – with force if necessary.

The shortsightedness of the policy of disarmament of the Iraqi people is staggering.

Without arms, the Iraqi people will be 100 percent dependent on their central government in Baghdad and their police forces to defend themselves against terrorists and foreign militia groups. The government can never do an adequate job – no matter how many soldiers and policemen Iraq employs.

We are actively encouraging the development of a new police state in the Middle East – a region dominated by police states.

This is not the American way. This is not the way of freedom. This is not the way to empower the people.

We should be collecting arms in Iraq – from bad guys. We should not be collecting arms from the people who willingly turn them in for money or for fear of prosecution.

Terrorists don't turn in weapons for money and they don't turn them in for fear of prosecution.

We are taking arms out of the hands of our friends in Iraq and leaving them in the hands of the bad guys. It's that simple.

Disarmament will lead to disaster. It always does. Every example of genocide in the history of the world has been preceded by disarmament of the population. America should not be a party to a future holocaust in Iraq.

Rather than disarming the Iraqi people, we ought to be putting weapons in their hands – at least in the hands of people we determine to be freedom-minded, responsible and opposed to terror.

We're supposed to be inculcating the Iraqi people with an appreciation of freedom and self-government. In America, we know freedom and self-government are only possible when the people can hold both their government accountable to them and can defend themselves from their enemies both foreign and domestic.

The Iraqi people can't do that without firearms any more than the American people can do that without firearms.