Originally posted by: Corn
The Bush admin would never change positions on this war, it's about aiding terrorists...I mean it's about WMD...I mean it's about stabilizing the region...I mean it's about freeing the Iraqi people...yeah, that's the ticket.
My question is why must people like you believe there should only be
one reason or justification for this war, and not all that you mentioned? As far as I'm concerned, each of those "positions" is valid and not at odds with the other. Unless of course you are a rabid liberal frothing at the mouth in desperation..........
1. We all want to round up whoever was remotely responsible for 9/11. So far we can only implicate Al Quaeda. There are no known links between Al Quaeda and Iraq--actually Saddam and Osama have been at odds with each other in the past. If the war in Iraq is about terrorism, we need to invade Sudan, Syria and Lebanon, Indonesia etc. NOW and wipe out all those terrorist cells. The war is NOT about terrorism...
2. Original thrust of the war effort was to enforce UN resolutions in place after the Gulf War. We needed 'evidence' of the destruction of ALL banned chemical & biological weapons and 'full disclosure' of any nuclear weapons program. This is what we've been hearing for the past 12+ months (or past 5 years if you consider Clinton's minimal efforts in this arena.) I do not doubt that we will find evidence of old, untouched bio/chem weapons in Iraq. We may even find facilities for the manufacture of these banned weapons. But so far all we've been able to prove was that they had a few missiles that could fly farther than 90 miles, not WMD. Did the inspectors have enough time? I don't think so...they barely had 3 months of real time to work. Everyone said Iraq has had 12 years to disclose all evidence but how much diplomatic pressure was on them those 12 years? It seems to me we went straight from oil-for-food to war drums beating. So far, our troops have found no WMD...just a few rusty containers of pesticides and some leftover lethal chemicals from 1940. This war is not about WMD, and the Bush Administration seems to agree at this point...
3. Our current raison d'etre is 'regime change'. We want to free the people of Iraq from an oppressive regime. Nevermind that our country, under the same people now in the current administration (*cough* Rumsfeld) helped support and build this regime a few decades ago. I DO NOT LIKE THIS REASON ONE BIT. Relations with the Arab/Muslim world are fragile enough with Sharon in Israel, and now we're gonna just roll in and take out a government? What does this say to other Middle Eastern countries? How will their people perceive this (can't help the fact that they don't have a free press!) And beyond the Middle East, what kind of precedent does this set for American intervention elsewhere? I don't like the idea of our troops bailing out *some* of the oppressed people around the world and not all of them. I supported the action in Kosovo/Yugoslavia, I supported our action in Somalia and I would have supported action in Rwanda but for some reason we never went there...