The bomb was set so he’d die anyway. Nice comparison, though. Gives me the shivers…
Actually I don’t mind this Hijack. As I have seen it many times, they can be very educational, and I think it is very relevant to this discussion.
Looking back, I see the OP was kind of Hawkish, I did reluctantly agree with the intervention in Afghanistan, but not the Iraq action, As the 911 anniversary looms closer, I do think we still need to find justice for what happened, unfortunately the intervention in Iraq has made this harder now, since we have an administration that decided that a surrogate to punish for 911 was the ticket. Bad as Saddam was, he was not involved in 911.
As I see Sam Stone mentioning WWII, allow me to ponder what a machiavellian would have done:
IF a truly machiavellian mind had planed this: right after 911 it would have recognized the enmity Saddam had with Al-queda, taking the WWII analogy, he would have cast Saddam as ½ Stalin and told him that limited sanctions but more inspections would continue; however, under the water: imply to him that lifting more sanctions would be possible if he could get Osama’s head in a platter. And we could get more access to Iraqi oil in the deal. (Like in WWII, it was time to old the breath)
Then he would have gone to India to gave it almost total support.
Then he would have given a Libya+ treatment to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. With the info on 911, regarding SA and Pakistan, out in the open, many nations of the word would have supported us in demanding that all the groups involved on the crime were wrought to justice.
In the long run, he would have made efforts to push Iraq to go the way of the former Soviet Union and fall for a more western way of democracy like Turkey. (hint to the hawks: In western Europe we got better results by waiting rather than invading)
As the Allies did in WWII, regarding Stalin (or Saddam in this case) sometimes alliances had to be made with the devil; in the case of WWII the devil (The Communism Stalin Championed) fell later. And we got Hitler.
Well, so much for that machiavellian exercise (I have to admit I would not have wanted to do it, but looking at WWII it raises my appreciation for the Allies of WWII (minus Stalin of course)), what we have now is a change of priorities, and seeking justice for 911 is now an inconvenience for the current situation, and for the current administration too. And we still don’t have Osama.
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Speaking of WWII: Do you remember the “taxes to beat the axis”: that meant we had money to defeat Hitler, and that was enough to then also contain Communism by propping up Europe, as I see how we are NOT doing what it needs to be done in a serious war (hey: that is what the administration has said we are involved here) I have to say we truly have an incompetent in the Whitehouse.
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For that matter, Yasser Arafat and Osama bin Laden were both trained as civil engineers.