Why didn't we go to war earlier?

[yellowperil]

I suppose this is one of the lingering questions I have. Bush goes to war without UN support, presumably because (in his explanation) Saddam Hussein is too imminent a threat to wait longer. Yet he points to evidence of Iraq violating UN regulations over the years since the Gulf War as support that they are building WMDs. Why didn't Bush make stopping Saddam his #1 priority when campaigning for president? If Saddam really was an imminent threat, why didn't we attack Iraq in 2001? Little national attention was paid to Iraq until last year and up until recently when the media blitz began. I just can't imagine that a president who knew of such dangers would not even focus on Iraq until after the 9/11 attacks and the infamous Axis of Evil speech.

Also, it's possible we could have had the support of more countries if we gave more time to disarm. Even Chirac said he would support a 30 day disarmament period for Iraq, yet Bush declared only a 48 hour ultimatum. If we waited 12 years, what's another 28 days? It seems evident to this pinko peacenik anyway that Bush was afraid of losing any more support and morale if Iraq was allowed to continue disarming.

 

[b0mbrman]

Originally posted by: yellowperil
I suppose this is one of the lingering questions I have. Bush goes to war without UN support, presumably because (in his explanation) Saddam Hussein is too imminent a threat to wait longer. Yet he points to evidence of Iraq violating UN regulations over the years since the Gulf War as support that they are building WMDs. Why didn't Bush make stopping Saddam his #1 priority when campaigning for president? If Saddam really was an imminent threat, why didn't we attack Iraq in 2001? Little national attention was paid to Iraq until last year and up until recently when the media blitz began. I just can't imagine that a president who knew of such dangers would not even focus on Iraq until after the 9/11 attacks and the infamous Axis of Evil speech.

Woah...I thought Bush had a vendetta against Iraq since he came into office. Some sort of family feud thing...

 

[owensdj]

yellowperil, we didn't go to war earlier because we wanted to go through the UN to try to disarm Iraq of WMD without resorting to war. This takes time. When it became clear that certain members of the UN Security Counsil wouldn't enforce the UN Resolutions calling for the disarmament of Iraq, we had no choice be to go to war.

Also, Iraq was mentioned by Bush during his election campaign.

 

[T2T III]

yet Bush declared only a 48 hour ultimatum. If we waited 12 years, what's another 28 days?

28 days would have given Saddam too much more time. Clearly, we have been lied to all along. The U.S. has been lied to, the weapons inspectors have been lied to and th U.N. had been lied to when Iraq supplied boxes of their weapon's reports. Belive me, I'm all for patience ... and waiting it out when dealing with sane individuals. However, Saddam has had the same bad habits all along. 48 hours was plenty - and 48 minutes would have been fine by me.

 

[Nitemare]

We didn't know that France, Germany and Russia had been bribed so thoroughly

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Tiles2Tech

yet Bush declared only a 48 hour ultimatum. If we waited 12 years, what's another 28 days?

28 days would have given Saddam too much more time. Clearly, we have been lied to all along. The U.S. has been lied to, the weapons inspectors have been lied to and th U.N. had been lied to when Iraq supplied boxes of their weapon's reports. Belive me, I'm all for patience ... and waiting it out when dealing with sane individuals. However, Saddam has had the same bad habits all along. 48 hours was plenty - and 48 minutes would have been fine by me.

Also, waiting 28 more days would have effectively killed any military operation until late fall/early winter. It is getting warmer in Iraq and our troops would not be able to operate effectively in 100 degree temperatures while wearing chem suits.

 

[T2T III]

Originally posted by: Nitemare
We didn't know that France, Germany and Russia had been bribed so thoroughly

I'm actually surprised that they news of Russia supplying Iraq with night vision equipment and GPS gear wasn't released sooner. I thought that was the role of our "spys" - to find this information out in advance.

 

[Kenazo]

I'm actually surprised that they news of Russia supplying Iraq with night vision equipment and GPS gear wasn't released sooner. I thought that was the role of our "spys" - to find this information out in advance.

Just b/c you didn't know doesn't mean the gov't didn't know.