>A fair point. This is at least a known quantity versus the unknown of WMD falling into terrorist hands. I still think we did the right thing on many levels. The most important of which is our national security.
I wasn't feeling particularly endangered by Saddam before the war, but that's just me.
I supported the war on the bases of liberating the Iraqi people and the principle of establishing a democracy, but changed my mind a month or two before the war started (I think this is documented on SI) because I was uncomfortable with the emphasis on WMD and the terrorism links. I was also uncomfortable with what I felt overly optimistic estimates by the administration in terms of the costs and duration of reconstruction, as well as the expectation that we'd be overwhelmingly viewed as liberators.
I didn't want us to go to war without a plan I felt comfortable with. I didn't think that the loss of lives on our side would be considerable (I think my estimate was "under 1,000"), but was expecting the war to cost in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and that we'd have to be there for 15+ years. I didn't think the administration was being honest with the people about this, because if they had been, the people wouldn't have supported the war.
If Bush had spoken to the people before the war started and said, "It will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, and may cost us some lives, but we must remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. He's killing hundreds of thousands of people, and besides, if we can take out that regime and place a democracy in its place, it'll make Iraq a shining beacon in the Middle East. It may be very difficult, but I feel we can do it.", I would've likely supported him, though the rest of the country probably would not have. However, he's only been emphasizing that since the war began.
>The true debate is if the cost was worth the gains (I think it will be). Calling it a "dirty little war", and saying "it's about oil" etc. all are political BS trying to further an agenda moreso than honest debate about the issue (not that you do this Z).
We went into Iraq because of many reasons, and oil was just one of them:
(in no particular order, and of course there are others)
1. Potential for WMD attacks on U.S. and Iraq's neighbors 2. Potential to pass WMD to terrorist groups
3. Al-Qaida ties
4. Oil
5. Neo-conservative experiment had to start somewhere
6. Funding suicide attacks against Israel
7. Building democracy
8. Liberating Iraqis from a brutal regime
9. Bush grudge
And it's not a bad case, if all of those points turned out to be true.
But, the administration had to stretch the truth or delude itself to get us there.
-Z |
