Saddam Hussein didn't attack Washington DC. Al Qaeda did. They are not the same thing. You will notice, as well, that Al Qaeda did not attack with an Iraqi-supplied chemical or biological weapon. Why do you suppose that is? If Saddam was willing to supply them with one, don't you figure they would have used one?
I suspect that he has not supplied Al Qaeda with WMD for the same reason that the other WMD-armed hostile powers that we've faced have never used them against us: the certain knowledge that if the weapon is traced back to him, he will be destroyed. The risk exceeds the reward by a huge margin, and while Saddam may be cruel and vicious, he is well known to have a high regard for his own skin.
Now ask yourself: if Saddam knows that we are going to destroy him anyway, why shouldn't he turn over everything he has to Osama? If people know they will be attacked anyway, deterrence - a policy of proven effectiveness - loses all its value.
So when I see Dubya, Cheney, Ashcroft, and others who do live here trying frantically to take down Saddam, my thought is not that their goal is feathering their own nests or destroying civil liberties, I think they're trying to save themselves, their loved ones, and people like me and my children.
I don't believe that an attack on and occupation of Iraq will make another serious terrorist attack any less likely. It might make such an attack more likely.
I would like to believe that the world is a simple place, and that the sledgehammer is an effective weapon against the anopheles mosquito or the tsetse fly. Can't quite make myself do it, though. And try as I may, I can't make myself see a war on Iraq as the logical next step in a war against terrorism.
It's easy for you not to give a shit because you live in the Philippines, so it's all academic.
I almost want to write "LOL", but I don't use those abbreviations. I live in a country that the State Dept. says is a place to be avoided, a place where Americans are likely to be targeted by terrorists, a place where Americans have been shot and beheaded by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists, a place where American troops were recently deployed in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy an Al Qaeda ally. And you say that I'm not threatened?
Please tell my parents that; it might reassure them. |
