I have no love of the Shrub-in-Chief.
Why fight this war?
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We supported Saddam when he came to power as a bulwark against communism. He has since started 2 wars with his neighbors, killed millions (including his own citizens) and still has an army strong enough to take most of the middle east (except Iran, Syria, and Turkey). Remember- he used poison gas weapons on 50 villages in northern Iraq in 1988. Defectors from his country (his son in law-killed by him- and the head of his nuclear weapons program) have shown the world his drive to get WMD’s. Only an Israeli pre-emptive strike in the '90’s prevented him from getting weapons grade fissionables a few years ago (from a French-designed nuclear power plant). The only real force preventing Saddam from overrunning Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan is the US military and whatever allies it can muster.
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After the Gulf War, in which we kicked him out of a country he invaded, he agreed to a set of surrender terms, including disarmament of WMD’s. When South Africa gave up its WMD’s, the process took less than a year. 12 years after surrender-no disarmament in Iraq, thus a violation of his surrender terms.
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Also after the Gulf War, Pres. GHW Bush told the people of Iraq to “Rise up…We are behind you!” The fools believed him, rose up, and then got slaughtered as we watched-and yes, some of those massacres were in full view of the Coalition Forces. As a result, we now have a reputation of being untrustworthy. The only way to rectify that is to do the right thing- clean up our messes and stand by our words.
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The “Hitler” comparison. The only difference between Saddam and Hitler is that we didn’t appease Saddam, so his cancer was somewhat contained early. The appeasers didn’t get the upper hand.
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At least one American MIA is believed to be alive and in Iraqi custody.
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“He can’t get us with his WMDs” BULL! With the amount of shipping coming into our port cities, it is impossible to inspect every ship entering US coastal waters. All he needs to do is get 1 nuke-bearing cargo ship into an American port city under a false flag to kill millions. Ditto chem or bioweapons. Our port cities include NYC, New Orleans, San Francisco, San Diego (also a big submarine base- a twofer!), Miami, Houston, etc.
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While the direct Iraq-Al Qaeda connection as mentioned in Colin Powell’s UN pleas is pretty much garbage, numerous reports of terrorist training camps in Iraq exist. Those reports are not just from Intelligence Agencies, but also from the free press.
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Will innocents be killed? Yep. Will more innocents be killed in this war than who have died under the privations caused by our policy of sanctions and containment? Doubtful. Saddam, like many dictators under similar constraints, redirects much of the international humanitarian aid to his military, in this case, mostly to his Republican Guard. Food, water, medicine, and education are more available to his cronies than to those who need it most. Besides, the sanctions aren’t working. The French helped him build a nuclear reactor capable of producing weapons grade fissionables. The Russians have gotten him GPS jammers, night vision goggles and SAM’s. The Syrians have also gotten him night vision systems. Until they got caught, the Jordanians participated in smuggling Iraqi oil in excess of the UN approved oil for food program to increase his money flow to buy banned technology.
Doubt me on any of the above? Check out the continuing reports from CNN, Reuters, BBC, Frontline, A&E’s biography of Saddam Hussein, Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post, and even the Wall Street Journal. You may have to dig in the archives, but the reports are there.
I have no doubts as to the justness of this war. My only question is to the timing. This war could have happened 11 years ago, or 11 years from now. I suspect that Shrub’s motives are at least partially personal.
As for the “zionism” and “oil war” stuff-
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America has gone to war to protect practitioners of Islam in Europe (remember the ethnic cleansings in the Balkans) when the Europeans were content to just shake their heads and say “What a shame.”
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Oil War? At least in part, but not primarily. Mexico, Venezuela, and Norway (#2 in the World!) are all significant oil exporters, and we have some significant resources ourselves (although miniscule as compared to the North Atlantic or Arabic oil fields). Still, how long do you think your lifestyle would remain unchanged if Saddam’s armies had been allowed to run rampant through the Middle East?