At any rate, the 2% doesn't count? The attempt to create the first Arab democracy doesn't count - just because the case is so simple?
It was not a significant component of Bush's attempt to get the people of this country behind the invasion.
Come again? What were thousands of our troops doing stationed in Saudi Arabia if Iraq did not threaten our security?
Providing Saudi security and protecting our vested interests.
At any rate, you are offering a lot of 20/20 hindsight here. I guess that you are right that Bush should *not* have believed our intelligence
services, which were telling us that Saddam Hussein was hiding massive
biological, chemical, and possibly nuclear weapons programs - if only
becaue our intelligence services had already been proven disastrously wrong in pre-war Iraq, India, Pakistan, and the DPRK over the previous ten
years..... indeed, they are almost a contrarian indicator at this point.
But the evidence is that the Bush administration stretched intelligence that supported their claim that Hussein was a threat and ignored evidence to the contrary in order to make a case for war. An example of this is the African Uranium claim which is again in the news as the administrations Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board has found that "the White House was so anxious "to grab onto something affirmative" about Hussein's nuclear ambitions that it disregarded warnings from the intelligence community that the claim was questionable." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A25935-2003Dec23) These are his own guys making the report. We can only imagine what a neutral commission might find.
Nevertheless, unless you are arguing that Bush should have used US intelligence as a contrarian indicator -
No, I'm arguing that he cherry picked intelligence to mislead the public into supporting his administrations desire to invade Iraq. I think that, given time and a unbiased examination of the intelligence would have revealed Iraq's impotence.
Secondly, I also think that you are not thinking sufficiently long-term.
The Bush Administration did not hide their belief that they intended to use a liberated Iraq as a catalyst for a democratic reshaping of the Middle
East. Did invading Iraq inspire some jihaids over the past two years?
Quite possibly. But 20 years from now will the US benefit from no longer having troops in the Muslim Holy Land and from having Iraq liberated from
Saddam Hussein's oppression? I certainly think so. At the very least, I would hope that you could see that reasonable people could disagree on
this point, and that the Bush Administration reasonably believed that this would benefit Iraq - and that this justified a war.
In another thread you mention that Bush doesn't have the foresight to realize that invading a nation requires rebuilding said nation afterwards, but here you have him projecting the effect of the war on complex middle east politics a generation from now? Give me a break, John.
I also think that you are also assuming that the jihadis think like you do. The jihadis care little for the concept of "sovereignty" that you cited
in your "hundredfold reason." I do think, however, that 10 years from
now when there are no US troops in Saudi Arabia and little US presence in
Iraq, that the jihdi rage against us will certain fall below the levels
that recruited the 9/11 terrorists.
Well you can speculate all you want. So can I. I think that the invasion has
solidified the movements of our ideological opponents, increased the ranks of those that would willingly take up arms against us, and has, by fracturing the international solidarity created by the 9/11 attacks, significantly weakened our ability to combat them.
Plain and simple, the Bush Administation made it clear that they wanted to remove Saddam Hussein for two key reasons:
1) It would make the world a better place for numerous reasons
and
2) They could not be sure of how he would dispose of his weapons and
weapons knowledge, especially since it was obvious he was trying to hide
something from UN inspectors.
No. The Bush administration, playing on the fears that 9/11 generated, made it clear that there _would_ be NBC attacks very soon if we didn't take Hussein out. That is how they sold the war.
-- Doug _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
