Srexley, so that this doesn't become a transcript forum instead of a posting forum I'll change the nature of my reply to you.
The Iraq War was wrong for several reasons. Its buildup was replete with fabrications, falsifications, outright lies, deception and way too much innuendo for any rational thinker to support as genuine.
Whether it was in the administration's description of what we were supposed to fear, its description as to the actual quality of the Coalition which supposedly lined up to fight it or in the accuracy of the evidence presented to the United Nations--it was all bogus! And it sure seemed every time Bush slipped in his approval ratings a new reason for the war was invented to become public.
But most of all, America's invasion of Iraq was a violation of international law and very similar to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was: both were wrongful!
Think. Would America have invaded Iraq were not the oil present? Would America have come to the rescue of Kuwait were oil not an issue there? In order to answer in the affirmative, one has to think America would have invaded many other nations as well (did you read that dictator list in my previous post?) for the sake of democracy and bringing down tyrants. Unfortanately, when it's been convenient many of those tyrants, including Saddam, were America's friends!
You seem to write like democracy is right around the corner in Iraq because "we liberated them." In just one election, the very first one to be held, all of this hope will be dashed and gone as the 60 percent Shiite demographic will for a brief time electorally overtake and then exert longterm control over the nation, ultimately aligning itself with Iran. What we'll see won't be a democracy, rather it'll become another religious-styled government replete with the fundamentalism which spawns from same. And it's also quite likely that the traditional Shiite opponent, the Sunnis, comprised of 20+ percent of Iraq's population, will most likely themselves become Iraq's new victims.
Now, in my post where I was referring to Saddam's regime being secular and my mentioning of the fact that pre-war women were 60 percent attendees at Iraq's universities, that there was a pre-war stock market and a pre-war real estate market--I mentioned this not in support of Saddam, but in order to show you that Saddam and Al Qaeda were not and are no mix, they never were aligned. OBL's big dreams rest on having fundamentalist religous-styled government; Saddam's rested on a secular-styled government with his large ego perched safely at the top of the Arab adoration scale, a new-age Saladin.
Regarding Bush's election? Yes, Bush lost the popular vote and he was, in effect, selected by the U.S. Supreme Court which overturned the Floridian high court's decision. Perhaps you should investigate the Texas firm Choicepoint, the political affiliation of its ownership, etc., which purged so many Democrat-leaning voters from Florida's voting rolls; or the near-violent behavior of Tom Delay-led GOPwingers physically disrupting recounts in Florida's counties. How a state counts its votes is a states rights matter, not a federal one unless there has been a violation of civil rights.
Anyway, whether you agree with me or not, it's my view Bush's war and terror politics very much has served to help ease from memory spans the way he got elected.
Waging the Iraq War did beef up defense spending which to some degree helped spur elements of the economy, but the war also helped to diminish the consciousness that we even had a bad economy.
And, of course, waging this war will nicely pad the pockets of Bush's oil insiders--whether by keeping Iraq's oil off of the market or, when appropriate, infusing it into the market.
About the only aspect of this war I found genuine was the administration's belief that it would help Israel were Saddam gone for good. I think the war's architects actually believed this would be the case. But even this possible positive aspect from the war can by no means be certain as the war most assuredly will create more hatred for the United States which will also translate into a harder and more stubborn refusal to deal with Israel in any capacity.
Let me ask you some questions:
1) Do you think the Bush administration lied both to Congress in order to get the preemption legislation and to the American people in order to get them to approve?
2) Why was it necessary for the US to spy on the homes and offices of members of the UN Security Council, and why was this act not published in any American daily newspaper?
3) Why would Saddam's secular government want itself to eventually be overrun by a OBL's preferred religious fundamentalist government?
4) Why did the U.S. believe only half of what Saddam's son-in-law, Karmel, stated when he presented US intelligence with two points: a) virtually all of Iraq's WMD had been destroyed shortly after the first Gulf War; and, b) that Iraq was close to nuclear development back in the late-80's. The US ignored point a) but loudly trumpeted point b), even when it was proven that point b) had dismantled.
5) Why was it that none of Iraq's neighbors, including Kuwait, feared Iraq at the time of the recent invasion? Why did the Arab Council oppose the war?
6) Did Saddam kick out the weapons inspectors?
7) Was it a lie when Condoleezza Rice said on television that the only use of Iraq's aluminum tubes was uranium centrifuges?
8) Did Iraq seek yellow cake from Niger? And who do you think is responsible for falsifying the document showing this? And did Bush, knowning this wasn't true, deliver this as a reason for war during his state of the union speech?
9) Why did Cheney say "We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons" on March 16, 2003 on Meet the Press?
10) Bush, stated, on October 7th: "We have also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] for missions targeting the United States." Was this true? See any manned or unmanned drone capability discovered yet?
11) On February 8th, in a radio address, did Bush say: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established." Why'd he say this and where'd that information come from? Care to hazard a guess that this might be a lie?
12) What was Powell thinking during his February 5th remarks to the UN Security Council: "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets." Was this what he was told to say? And who told him to say this, and why?
13) And who was Rumsfeld trying to impress when he said in his March 30, 2003 statement to the press: "We know where [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat." Think he was trying to build a case for war? And why would he say he knew where the WMD were, when he obviously didn't? How come, eh? Were Bush's war approval poll numbers down at the time?
14) And do you remember the images of those two mobile trucks so oft drummed up in the American televised media? Here's what Bush had to say about them: "Yes, we found a biological laboratory in Iraq which the UN prohibited." Again, were his poll numbers down at the time? Do you think the U.S. should have checked with the British to see if these trucks were the weather balloon-filling trucks that the British provided Iraq? And did Tony Blair really have to let the television images of these trucks go on and on and on, without correcting the reality?
15) Who do you think needed this war more, the American people or President Bush? And if it was the Americans who so desperately needed this war, why were we lied to by Bush and his warmongering administration?
Finally, there's a lot there to see. But there's even more that wasn't seen. America went to war needlessly and our people are dying like shooting ducks, as a consequence. This, to me, is unacceptable. And it should be to you also! |
