THE PRE-9/11 MIND: The more I read emails or talk to anti-war types, I get a sense that 9/11 never really happened. Or if it happened, it meant nothing more than a discrete crime with discrete criminals who alone deserved justice......
I disagree with Andrew Sullivan's analysis in one important respect.
The near totality of discourse on Iraq is hopelessly contaminated by partisan bickering (as this group amply demonstrates.) Iraq is just a perfect pretext to get back at the Republicans here at home, as it is the ideal pretext elsewhere in the world for anti-Americans, anti-globalization anarchists, and others of that ilk to get their voices heard and spew their venom against the US. What goes around comes around. We were treated to that whole time and energy wasting circus over a blowjob in the Oval Office (and if it hadn't been that, some other pretext would have been unearthed), and now the Democrats of every stripe will milk this Iraq initiative for all it's worth. Completely normal in the world of politics.
Couple this with mainstream news media in the hands of advertising and marketing that mainly plays on your emotions, and you won't hear much balanced, honest reporting on subjects like Iraq or Al Qaeda.
At least sometimes this thread has a link to information that rises above partisan "talkingpoints" jive. Nearly always, these useful links are to information and analysis that has been gathered and formed over long term, by organizations that haven't put politics first. It's just hard to find such things, even if you take the trouble to diligently search Google.
On narrowly focusing on Al Qaeda vis à vis Iraq - Iraq is not even mainly a terrorism issue imho, though that's not absent as a concern and some of the reasons we're there aren't overly "moral" in all honesty, our being on that stupid Saudi oil teat and all. Clearly if there had been no 9/11, Saddam and his sons would have had long, happy days in front of them. Nobody would have lifted a finger, just as nobody lifts a finger for the majority of human rights abuses that take place constantly throughout the world. |
