On Tue, 15 Mar 2005 08:02:42 -0500, JDG wrote > We spent 12 years trying to verify it, and Iraq refused to comply > with the UN inspections to do so, even after being provided a "final > opportunity." Indeed, we were uncovering a lot of evidence that the > Iraqis had something to hide.
And the "something" is what? Isn't it clear now that they weren't hiding anything significant, except perhaps a ton of cash? > Yes. But intelligence is *hard*, and its never been perfect. We had > good evidence that the Iraqis had something to hide I don't quite see how we could have evidence of something we haven't even found now that we've been in country for two years...? > the best information available. We also had very good evidence, I > think, that the Iraqis would at minimum attempt to resume their > illicit weapons activity the moment that France, Russia, China, & > Co. succeeded in lifting UN inspections. Are you saying that our war was necessary in order to stop France, Russia and China from lifting sanctions? Are you saying that we couldn't have increased the pressure on the Iraqi leaders any way other then sending in our troops? > Of course. It would be folly to argue that any war was conducted > in the best of all possible ways. That's not what I was asking. What lessons have we have learned from all this, in terms of justifying a war, especially a war that does not have international consensus behind it? For me, this was a huge lesson in not rushing into war, a mistake for all of us. Not that I'm advocating that we rush out of it, now that we're there. I'm sure that the price our family paid prejudices me, but I look back and think we didn't come close to doing our intelligence homework or exhausting every other possibility before attacking. To me, the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the world doesn't mean that we should be quick to go to war, it calls us to work ever harder to avoid it, to find ways to resolve or live with conflict, so that around the planet, people are less tempted to use those weapons for anything other than defense. Nick -- Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org) _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
