FILNER'S EASTER SERMON: SURRENDER TO THE UN IN IRAQ

By Michael Giorgino

Unlike Bob Filner, Mike Giorgino has complete confidence in the leadership of our Commander in Chief, the fighting ability of our armed forces, and the righteousness of our cause.

For Filner, politics never takes a holiday. On Martin Luther King Day, he showed up at the Chapel at Naval Air Station North Island to denounce the Patriot Act--an essential weapon in our post-9/11 intelligence arsenal.

Now, as American forces react with courage and determination against twin uprisings in Iraq, Filner says we might as well throw in the towel. Filner wants us to "end the occupation" and "substitute an international force."

Filner would put the United Nations in charge. He would subordinate our armed forces to foreign officers from places like France and the former-Soviet Union. Our soldiers and Marines would get their marching orders from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who would tell them to remove their American flag arm patches and to wear pale blue UN berets.

Mr. Filner seems to have great confidence in the United Nations. Perhaps he has not heard about the UN oil-for-food scandal. From 1996 to 2003, the UN was charged with running the oil-for-food program that let Saddam Hussein sell some of his nation's oil on the world market. The money was supposed to be used for badly needed items for the Iraqi people -- food, medicine, and school supplies.

As it turns out, the $100 billion program was rife with corruption, kickbacks and cronyism. The General Accounting Office, Congress' accounting watchdog, estimates over $10 billion of the money is missing -- which almost surely means it was stolen!

Evidence from Saddam Hussein's captured records show Kofi Annan's hand-picked director of the oil-for-food program, Benon Sevan, and Annan's son, Kojo Annan profited handsomely from the bribe-riddled program, while helping Saddam Hussein launder billions of dollars in oil money to pay for weapons and his lavish lifestyle.

At least $5 billion went from corrupt contractors--mainly French and Russian--straight into Saddam's bloodstained hands.

What did the U.N. do? Nothing. It seems to have looked the other way as the corruption festered. Because of it, literally thousands of Iraqi children went without food and medicine.

"That money was not used for food or health care," said Secretary of State Colin Powell. "It was used for palaces and debauchery."

Congressman Henry Hyde (R-Illinois) has called this scandal "an outrage." His House International Relations Committee is conducting hearings on what sounds like the biggest financial rip-off in history. Perhaps Bob Filner will sit in on the hearings as the evidence piles up, exposing the enormous UN racket that skimmed billions of dollars from funds that were supposed to feed hungry children.

What was most nauseating about Filner's Easter sermon was not his cowardly demand for surrender to the UN, but his utter lack of confidence in America's fighting men and women. Filner has been crying "Vietnam" and "quagmire" since before the war began. His "cut-and-run" rhetoric grows louder and shriller with every American casualty, yet he can't spare one word of praise for the remarkable progress made by our forces in most parts of Iraq outside Falluja and Najaf.

Filner has been trying to weaken America's independence and security for years. He votes against virtually every bill intended to strengthen our defenses. He voted against authorizing the President to disarm Iraq and co-sponsored legislation to remove that authority. He tried for years to lift economic sanctions against Saddam Hussein without accounting for his weapons. He told the sons and daughters of deployed Marines that Operation Iraqi Freedom diminished America's "moral authority" in the world.

Our troops will quiet the unrest in Iraq, paving the way for an historic transfer of power on June 30 to a new Iraqi government. The Iraqi governing council will operate under a new set of laws that protect the rights of the Iraqi people. Free elections will be held in 2005, paving the way for a permanent constitution that will serve as a beacon of freedom in the Islamic world.

President Bush had a better message for our troops on Easter: "America is fighting on the side of liberty -- liberty in Iraq, and liberty in the Middle East. This objective serves the interests of that region, of the United States and of all freedom-loving countries. As the greater Middle East increasingly becomes a place where freedom flourishes, the lives of millions in that region will be bettered, and the American people and the entire world will be more secure."

There are many days of struggle ahead in the War on Terror. Unlike Filner, I have complete confidence in the leadership of our Commander in Chief, the fighting ability of our armed forces, and the righteousness of our cause.

• Mike Giorgino is a retired Navy Surface Warfare Commander and a Gulf War veteran. He is the Republican nominee for Congress in the 51st Congressional District. He may be contacted via e-mail at mgiorgino@aol.com or website http://www.Giorgino4Congress.com.