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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: aladin who wrote (100737)	6/8/2003 9:07:44 PM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 281500

Hi John Cavanaugh; Re: "Minor point, but what was their motive for lying? Pay particular attention to explaining how an otherwise isolationist conservative Republican was in league with a liberal Labour party leader with an internationalist background." Bush had a number of reasons to push a war: (a) Cause his father was knocked for not finishing the last one. (b) Cause Saddam Hussein probably tried to kill his dad. (c) Because the religious right wanted to help Israel, and Sharon told him that the reason the Palestinians were blowing themselves up was because of financial support from Iraq. (d) Cause he wanted to get reelected. This one is fairly complicated and takes some explaining. Karl Rove was probably a part of it. Start with bad economic times. The stock market was tanking since well before 9/11, which didn't do anything to help. Furthermore, this country has a long history of lousy economies following stock market bubbles. So Bush needed something else for the voters to think about, something other than the economy. The deep thinkers in the administration believed that an Iraq war would be quick and easy, would make Americans feel good about themselves, (and Bush), and it would keep the war on Terror in the front of the news. After Iraq, the plan was to go into Syria or Iran, thereby ensuring that there would be another war (and therefore a patriotic boost) going when he was up for reelection in 2004. As to why Blair got caught up in it, I have no idea. I know that liberals tend to be do-gooders, and so maybe Blair wanted to help the Iraqi people. Other than that, I really can't see why he was silly enough to get involved. Some of the smaller players were bribed, or just saw a chance to get closer with the US, or to get some practice for their tiny and inexperienced armed forces. Or their motivations were similar to that of Bush. I don't know squat about British politics, so I'd like to hear some explanations from the other side of the pond. Certainly Blair went to great effort to exaggerate the WMD issue. He as much as admitted it with the big apology the other day. But why did he get involved??? Pat Buchanan is writing dark hints that the Israelis were involved. See: What was America's real motive for attacking Iraq? Was it oil? Empire? To make the Middle East safe for Sharon? ... wnd.com And there was a hint of this recently in an Israeli newspaper. See #reply-19013610 This is the kind of thing that the right wing naturally gravitates toward, that is, to blame the foreigners instead of themselves for a foreign policy disaster that was run completely from beginning to end by the right wing. But I believe that it is a part of the truth. Of course I'm a right winger, so it's what I would naturally tend to believe. (I.e. blame the Jews/foreigners, certainly not oneself.) -- Carl