On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 15:38:37 -0800 (PST), Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > --- Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I can only see it as strategic to Iraq if their > > purpose was to pull the > > West into the region in order to touch off a larger > > conflict. If it was > > to actually try to expand their borders, they were > > nuts, a possibility > > that cannot be discounted! > > > > Nick > > Why would they be that? If Michael Dukakis had been > President of the United States in 1990 - hardly an > unlikely outcome - Saddam Hussein would be ruling > Kuwait, along with Iraq, right now. The overwhelming > majority of Democratic Senators voted against the war. > The Democratic Party had majorities in both the > Senate and House of the Congress. Why was it > unreasonable to think that we would do nothing to > reverse the invasion? The reasons given by the Democratic Senators were that Saddam had indicated a willingness and even an eagerness to negotiate that Bush I was ignoring and Bush was repeatedly upping the hoops that Saddam had to jump through as he met each one.
That said - Iraq War 1 was clearly justified as a UN action to protect a sovereign state that had been overrun by its neighbor. >It was in no way clear at the > time that we were going to do something about the > invasion, and had we not, Iraq would be the most > powerful (non-Israel) country in the Middle East right > now, would have nuclear weapons (the UN reported that > Iraq was ~1 year from getting nuclear weapons in > 1991), and would be a major world power. Given what > Saddam Hussein knew, forget about insane, it wasn't > even dumb. If invading Kuwait had worked, he would > have been the greatest hero in the Arab world since > Nasser. A bit overstated since Arab nations contributed troops and support to kick his butt. My only problem with Kuwait was more the rhetoric and dishonesty and hypocrisy from Bush 1 leading up to the war. One of Bush's biggest allies and US supporters in the region was now demonized to whip up war fever to reinstall an oil sheikdom which offered good business contracts.. Gary Denton _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
