"to claim that the choice was between the status quo, or the march to Baghdad is a false dichotomy."
Hmmmm...... 9/11 - a vivid demonstration that the policies
of the last decade (read status quo), appeasement &
diplomacy, had utterly failed......
....OBL's open declaration of war whether we respond to it
or not.....
....That warmongering, genocidal thug, Saddam was openly
flaunting his willingness to defy the UN, while
simultaneously upgrading his WMD programs. Saddam allowed
his people to suffer while he took Oil for Food
money to line his pockets & pay off France, Germany,
Russia, China, ET AL, with fat illegal contracts, many of
which were to rebuild his war machine. Then there were
those constant infractions in "no fly zones" where Saddam
regularly shot at Coalition forces. Yadda, yadda, yadda....
Saddam's ties to Al Qaeda & other terrorist organizations
were widely known throughout many international
intelligence organizations.
Saddam had 12 long years to comply. He chose instead a
massive denial & deception campaign & reorganized his WMD
programs so they would have cover stories (dual use,
etc.). It's goal was to create the ability to quickly move
to just-in-time production of mass quantities of WMD's
once inspections were removed.
The Bush Admin drew a line in the sand. Once last time
Saddam repeated history & flagrantly crossed it.
Yup, "the choice was between the status quo, or the march
to Baghdad" was, in the end, Saddam's choice. The march to
Baghdad was more than appropriate IMO. |
