OK, I'll bite. Given that so far we've failed to turn up any significant evidence of WMD stockpiles or programs, containment was working. Why stop it?
You say it was falling apart. I see no evidence of that.
Yes, there was corruption. The war has given greater opportunities for corruption, only about different things. We could have worked harder on stopping corruption before the war. Why didn't we?
Russia and France make billions? So what?
US has a "major climbdown"? If you don't think we've lost worse in the prestige area, we'll agree to disagree. I assume you're arguing that "all the Arab street respects is force." I worry about what the rest of the world thinks about us more than I worry about "the Arab street."
All thought of reform evaporates in the Arab world? You see thought of reform in the Arab world now? I don't.
Palestinian suicide bombers funded? I think you're on thin ice here -- plenty of people are already p'o'ed about their perception that the Iraq war was pushed by Zionists for Zionist interests. I don't belive "the jooooos run the world" but I do believe that everybody pushes their own interests.
For example, I don't blame Chalabi, Iran, and the Iraqi ex-pats for feeding us false information in order to promote their interests. In their minds, they did the right thing, and if I were in their shoes, I'd agree.
I never believed Saddam's propaganda that "500,000 Iraqi babies die every year due to the sanctions." Funny how people who refuse to even consider that the Kuwait baby incubator story had even a kernel of truth swallow that lie without straining. But human nature never changes, that's why we call it human nature.
As for terrorism -- that remains to be seen, doesn't it? I suspect we were scarier when they thought we weren't as stupid as we've turned out to be. |
