Face It, We Wear the White Hats

The problem with the Hollywood platform today is the difficulty in separating the patriots with genuine policy reservations from the revolutionaries with their wanton buckshot waiting for any civil target anywhere.

There’s no “debate” with the shotgun-toting Michael Moores, who aim at every federal flaw and blemish, hurling reckless invectives at our government.

But what of the other side, the basic good guys with no political goal and no rabid causes and only a valid contempt for violence and war?

What about those dissidents who believe in a strong military presence and an appropriate time to put it to the test, who believe the world can no longer afford belligerent neighbors with impregnable borders? And those who believe that such a world cannot survive without “a global policeman,” a United Nations with true vision and true righteous might, a United States with its fortuitous place as the most fertile federation ever.

What about those guys out there on the street next to Moore with their signs?

Those are the reasoned souls I speak to with questions all of us share.

The most pivotal one of all: Must we be that world policeman? With the U.N. unable or unwilling to enforce its own edicts, yes.

There is no other answer. Whether you believe that we are “the good guys” or that we have hidden designs and capital ends, the answer is still yes. We are the might. We must pray it does not cloud the course of right.

Is Saddam Hussein an immediate threat to the security of his neighbors (as well as the numbers in his own midst who displease him)? Yes.

Will Hussein become a measurably greater threat once be develops the weapons he has scrupulously hidden from the world? Yes.

Blame whom you will, but has every avenue of “diplomacy” come to a humiliating dead end? Yes.

Has the United Nations conspicuously failed to enforce its own resolutions and ultimatums on Iraq, 17 since 1990? Yes.

And, after 12 years of terror and aggression, defiantly flouting the absolute tenets of all humanity, would we all sleep better, in a better world with a bygone Hussein? Yes.

There are no other answers, no pull-back, take-it-to-the- Security-Council options. That’s why we’ve spent trillions building the most awesome military legion the world has ever seen. For these sorry times when the bully down the street just won’t go away, when the “soft walk” won’t work anymore, the “stick” that you carry must work.

But there might be a question or two I would put to a room with Sean Penn, George Clooney, Susan Sarandon and Mike Farrell. Are there any issues or principles for which you would go to the mat? Is there anything -- anything -- you would send your son or daughter, in the uniform of your country, to protect? Or is it really “peace at any price”? “Any” price, guys?

The way is clear; we will win and prevail. And, with a little revivified faith from the good guys with bullhorns, we will do what’s right -- with the liberated people, the power and the oil.

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Marty Ingels is a producer and former comedian.