Well I'm most assuredly *not* in love with Bush, I think he's something of an imbecile, all in all, and I think that the WMD talk probably *was* just spin, though I don't think you or I have enough information to conclusively say whether Bush and company lied or just had crappy intel, or whether Saddam really *did* spirit the WMD's away before we got there. There is a LOT that can happen, and as much as we like simple answers like "He lied!" or "Saddam hid them!" or whatever, I think the TRUTH is that we just flat out DON'T know.
That said, you have to look at the long-term picture when you consider the importance of Iraq as a place for Liberty to grow in that region. The middle east has NEVER known Liberty in the way that you and I know it, they have never known religious freedom or tolerance, nor have they known the concept of Natural Rights or equality. I don't know whether the world is safer today than it was 6 months ago, but if we do this thing in Iraq properly, if we give them a foundation in the ideas that made our country great and free, those ideas will spread throughout that region. It might take 100 years, but those ideas WILL spread, and in time the people of that region will refuse to settle for brutality and persecution. It's not a simple overnight goal; it's not as simple as taking out a handful of guys and letting everything sort itself out.
There is a tendency among people to remain in familiar patterns, even if those patterns are unhealthy. It's the reason why dysfunction passes from generation to generation in families, and it's the reason why countries like China have lived in bondage and the middle east has remained in religious conflict for thousands of years. People stay in those patterns *because* they are familiar. It takes a powerful catalyzing agent to break their learned way of living and help them reorganize on a higher level. In the US we think, as RD said above, that people should just overthrow their own oppressive governments and declare their own Liberty.
Morally, that's true; they should do that. Psychologically and historically it is VERY unlikely and very difficult, just as it is difficult for a child who grows up with abusive parents to escape the trap of becoming an abuser him or herself. Most of the time they *can't* get out of it on their own, and often they don't even realize it's a problem until a therapist is able to work with them, sometimes for years, to help them see their problem --their learned pattern-- and overcome it. In the middle east you are seeing the same pattern, the same principle at work, but on the scale of many nations who have been at religious odds for thousands of years. The number of people is much greater, but the principle is the same.
I understand that you are bitter about the loss of your son. Anyone would be, and my heart does go out to you and the many other families who lost loved ones in this terrible conflict. It might not bring you comfort, but then again it might, to realize that somewhere down the road--perhaps even beyond the time of your and my death--that a huge percentage of the world will be freer, safer, and more tolerant of differences than they are today. Your son, as well as the sons and daughters of many other Americans, will have been the foundation of that understanding and tolerance. They are the therapist, they are the catalyzing agent that is beginning what must be a long process of change.
For that, I commend all those who have fought, who live and who died in this very noble cause.
Jason
Facebook
Twitter