# "Iraq supplied al-Qaeda with WMDs" -- Does this report justify the war?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-supplied-al-qaeda-with-wmds-does-this-report-justify-the-war/194072>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [August 9, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-supplied-al-qaeda-with-wmds-does-this-report-justify-the-war/194072 "2003-08-09T19:59:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 17

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**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2003, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-supplied-al-qaeda-with-wmds-does-this-report-justify-the-war/194072/321 "2003-08-18T21:59:26Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by David Simmons \*  
> \*\*I’m not sure I understand the point you’re after. Most of those of whom I spoke at the golf club are not old and most aren’t WWII vets, or veterans of any war.
> 
> I’m relatively ignorant of formal psychology education but I would put a lot of it down to the World Trade Center/Pentagon destruction. People seem to be willing to accept all kinds of federal government interference and additionally seem only to want to strike out at something. Since Al Qaeda is an amorphous target, “let’s hit at something that will hold still and we don’t like” appears to be a response to frustration.
> 
> And, of course the "glorious days’ when the “greatest generation saved the world from Hitler,” being now 60 years removed and outside the experience of most, is imagined as a lot different from the reality of that time. \*\*

David: My apologies - I made the classic mistake of assuming that your golfing aquaintances were all similar in age and background to yourself - and had undergone a change in their outlook at some point from being doves to hawks, as it were. I’m sorry I made such a silly assumption.

To clarify, my brother and I were travelling through the backwoods of Tennessee in 1980 and we filled up on gas in a very quiet 1 pump station - it was straight out of “Deliverance” believe me. Anyways, the old chap who served us picked up on our Australian accents and proceeded to tell us about serving on the USS Yorktown in the Battle of the Coral Sea. He said things like “We lost a lot of good men in that war… never again…”

And those were the sentiments I consistently picked up on - there was a sense amongst these old men that war is terrible, that war is something which scars you for life and that it should never be entered into lightly. That was my impression at any rate as a young man.

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**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\
**Post date:** [August 18, 2003, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-supplied-al-qaeda-with-wmds-does-this-report-justify-the-war/194072/322 "2003-08-18T22:33:49Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Boo Boo Foo \*  
> \*\*David: My apologies - \*\*

No problem. My cousin landed in North Africa, Sicily, Anzio and made his way up the boot of Italy. When the Korean War started he said something like - Tell them to get a bed ready for me at Leavenworth (US Military Prison) because I ain’t going.

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