# What?? The mission accomplished sign on the carrier didn't mean Iraq?? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 27, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084 "2003-09-27T00:49:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/81 "2003-09-29T19:29:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > \*\*Oh dear. :rolleyes: > Is our civilised discourse too deep for you? :wally > > My point is: what if Saddam **clearly complied** with all UN resolutions, including providing satisfactory evidence that all WMDs had been destroyed. > What would Bush have done? > What exactly was the US ‘mission’? \*\* I wondered that before the war and came to the conclusion that there wasn’t _anything_ Hussein could have done to avoid war. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/82 "2003-09-29T19:40:18Z")
The one thing Saddam could have done before the war to avert it would have been to nullify all of Iraq’s contracts with European petroleum companies and agreed to give Halliburton exclusive rights. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/83 "2003-09-29T22:39:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > \*\*No, I **don’t** mean Saddam sues for peace. > I mean he agrees to comply with all UN resolutions, allows all UN weapon inspectors in and proves he has destroyed all WMDs etc. > At this point, what is Bush going to do? > Are you saying he is still going to insist that Saddam leave or be overthrown? > And if so, under what authority are these Allies going to continue the war? > What exactly was the mission, and when was it announced? \*\* In this case, with this administration, then yes, I believe they still would have insisted he leave or be overthrown. We **WERE** going to war, and he **WAS** going to be overthrown, by hook or by crook. Generally speaking, there is a deadline, before which diplomacy has its place and agreements are made or broken. Then the time and date comes where diplomacy ends. Military action begins. After that time, making a simple diplomatic agreement that was demanded before the deadline ain’t gonna cut it, there needs to be negotiations, there may or may not be a cease fire during negotiations, but what is on the table is more than what was on the table before lead and depleted uranium started flying. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/84 "2003-09-29T22:58:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UncleBill \* > **…he WAS going to be overthrown, by hook or by crook.** Pretty much sums up the carrier landing. ---
**Author:** ![SunTzu2U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@SunTzu2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunTzu2U)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/85 "2003-09-29T23:53:04Z")
Try reading this link: [http://www.shreveporttimes.com/html/2C346DCA-132E-4994-B4CB-D62B3BEF0399.shtml](http://www.shreveporttimes.com/html/2C346DCA-132E-4994-B4CB-D62B3BEF0399.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/86 "2003-09-30T01:23:51Z")
Why did you feel the need to spam the every active Iraq thread on the board with this lame-ass editorial? What’s you point? That you found someone who was willing to admit in writing that he didn’t know before the war that Hussein’s Baathist regime was despicably evil in ways that most of us don’t like to imagine? That was a given. Never been disputed. If the judge didn’t know this before the war he was _willfully_ ignorant fucktard. To assume that people who didn’t think that it was in the US’s best interest to invade Iraq how, why, and when we didn’t know that Hussein is a horror is an insult. But I guess if you think the atrcocities of that regime are new news then you’re about as ignorant of a fucktard as the judge who didn’t realize that Hussein’s Baathist regime was despicably evil in ways that most of us don’t like to imagine. FYI, op-ed pieces aren’t very persuasive, except to the pre-fooled. This thread isn’t even about Iraq particularly. It’s about a botched photo-op. Opposition to the invasion of Iraq as it happened did not arise because there was no knowledge of Hussein’s atrocities. It arose in spite of such knowledge. The opposition arose because the invasion, how it happened, was not in the best interest of the US. Take your unpatriotic bleeding heart crap to wherever you found it. This is the real world. **There’s no time for this whining liberal bullshit.** Sheesh. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/87 "2003-09-30T01:26:56Z")
Ahem. “To assume that people who didn’t think that it was in the US’s best interest to invade Iraq how, why, and when we did, didn’t know that Hussein is a horror is an insult.” AND “Take your unpatriotic bleeding heart crap back to wherever you found it.” ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/88 "2003-09-30T09:40:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SunTzu2U \* > Try reading this link: > > [http://www.shreveporttimes.com/html/2C346DCA-132E-4994-B4CB-D62B3BEF0399.shtml](http://www.shreveporttimes.com/html/2C346DCA-132E-4994-B4CB-D62B3BEF0399.shtml) From your link: "When we left mid-June, 57 mass graves had been found, one with the bodies of 1,200 children. There have been credible reports of murder, brutality and torture of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqi citizens. " Yes, there were terrible things done by Saddam. The worst of these was when he used chemical weapons in Northern Iraq, killing thousands. Two tiny points, which your correspondent above seems strangely unaware of: - the massacres happened over a decade ago. At the time there was no call from any Republican to do anything about it. You see, Saddam was then an ally of the US. - the man who sold most of the chemical + biological weapons to Saddam (principally for use against Iran, but there was enough left to commit the massacre above) has been pictured shaking hands with Saddam while on his arms selling tour. Fortunately Bush will not need extradition papers to arrest this man, since Donald Rumsfeld is believed to be somewhere in the US. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/89 "2003-09-30T23:12:06Z")
[Mission **Not** Accomplished](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031006-490595,00.html?cnn=yes) over a photo of Bush in his flight suit on the aircraft carrier. Guess we know _their_ conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/90 "2003-10-01T00:28:17Z")
> [@](#): > > _By glee_ > the man who sold most of the chemical + biological weapons to Saddam (principally for use against Iran, but there was enough left to commit the massacre above) has been pictured shaking hands with Saddam while on his arms selling tour. Fortunately Bush will not need extradition papers to arrest this man, since Donald Rumsfeld is believed to be somewhere in the US. Did you really need to trump 10 high with a full house? ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/91 "2003-10-01T04:58:22Z")
One thing has been accomplished, Saddam’s systematic torture appartus has been dismantled. His torture - murder assembly lines have been shut down. I’ll give GWB credit for that. Once the immediate politics die down, and the final numbers are crunched, Saddam will turn out to be much worse than even his critics said he was. He will join the ‘great’ mass murderers of the 20th Century. Wish he was dead. I suggested Saddam was like a cross between Stalin and Hitler before the war. Somehow he was far more thug, pimp, party animal than I ever imagined. His sons were beyond comprehension. They did it all for the nookie, yeah, the nookie… And the torture, sadism, murder, money, and bling bling… But, mostly the nookie, yeah, the nookie… ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/92 "2003-10-01T05:00:27Z")
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**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/93 "2003-10-01T05:12:14Z")
Fred Durst = Saddam Hussein? Something to ponder as one sleeps, for NIGHTMARES! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2003, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084/94 "2003-10-02T13:28:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. B \* > Did you really need to trump 10 high with a full house? A fine (if mixed) analogy! SunTzu2U has posted this naive rubbish on more than one Iraq thread. This was quite a short response, but we are here ‘to stamp out ignorance’. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beagle \* > One thing has been accomplished, Saddam’s systematic torture appartus has been dismantled. His torture - murder assembly lines have been shut down. I’ll give GWB credit for that. Actually several things have been accomplished: - Bush has his shown contempt for the rest of the World (ignoring the Security Council; refusing to recognise the International Criminal Court; calling on the UN for help after defying it) - Bush has shown the US as having crap intelligence over WMDs (or has ignored good intelligence) - Bush has successfully persuaded the US voters that Saddam was behind 9/11 (I’m surprised that Bush hasn’t claimed Saddam was one of the hijackers…) - Bush has put the US at risk of another Vietnam (do the US troops leave while Iraq is still in unrest? How many casualties will he take?) - Bush has reassured Saudi Arabia that Saddam will never invade. (This means the US bases in Saudi can be dismantled, removing the main point of the Al-Qaeda terrorism campaign.) - US companies have got control of Iraq oil. **Why on earth would you give Bush credit for removing Saddam’s violent regime?** Who put Saddam in power? Who sold him chemical + biological weapons? Who did nothing when he gassed his own people? Who didn’t enter Iraq after Desert Storm? Who claimed the war was about the WMD’s? And if Bush is such a humanitarian, what about all the other murderous dictators? When is the US going to invade them? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-mission-accomplished-sign-on-the-carrier-didnt-mean-iraq/204084.md?page=4)