Saturday, June 19, 2004
Justification for an unjust war?
Historians are going to have a hard time deciding on how to write up this war on Iraq. I can imagine my kids, (if and when I have some) looking up at me and asking, "What exactly was the reason we killed anywhere between 9300 and 11300 civilians in Iraq at the cost of thousands of soldier's lives? Why did we go to war in 2003? What was the war about?"
One reason might be hitting Al Qaeda for September 11 and Bali. But today, the September 11 hearing in the States has once again cast doubt over any concrete links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Quoting from an article written in Washington by Rebecca Carr and George Edmonson, http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245040581.html
"As recently as Monday, Vice-President Dick Cheney said that Saddam "had long-established ties with al-Qaeda". The Bush Administration cited those ties as a reason for invading Iraq.
But the commission's investigators found those ties to be tenuous at best.
A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly visited bin Laden in 1994 when he was living in Sudan. Bin Laden requested space for training camps and help to buy weapons, but, according to the commission, Iraq never responded to those requests.
The commission also concluded that the claim Mohamed Atta, the plot's ringleader, met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague on April 9, 2001, was false, based on the evidence available, including an investigation by Czech officials and reports from detainees."
Oh, so there were no credible links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, but it has given Al Qaeda yet another reason to hate the West? I fear that Al Qaeda is a winner in this war and they didn't even have to fight.
So if it wasn't Al Qaeda as Downerpants vociferously asserts today, it was the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. But they don't exist, so why did we kill all those people?
Downerpants enthusiastically suggests, as he is known to do, that the Iraq war was waged because Iraq was not complying with a UN resolution on weapons of mass destruction (which it didn't have). So Iraq wasn't complying with a UN Resolution, was the UN involved in the war? If not, why not?
The more I look at it, the harder it is going to be to explain this war to my kids, if and when I have them.
One reason might be hitting Al Qaeda for September 11 and Bali. But today, the September 11 hearing in the States has once again cast doubt over any concrete links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Quoting from an article written in Washington by Rebecca Carr and George Edmonson, http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/17/1087245040581.html
"As recently as Monday, Vice-President Dick Cheney said that Saddam "had long-established ties with al-Qaeda". The Bush Administration cited those ties as a reason for invading Iraq.
But the commission's investigators found those ties to be tenuous at best.
A senior Iraqi intelligence officer reportedly visited bin Laden in 1994 when he was living in Sudan. Bin Laden requested space for training camps and help to buy weapons, but, according to the commission, Iraq never responded to those requests.
The commission also concluded that the claim Mohamed Atta, the plot's ringleader, met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague on April 9, 2001, was false, based on the evidence available, including an investigation by Czech officials and reports from detainees."
Oh, so there were no credible links between Al Qaeda and Iraq, but it has given Al Qaeda yet another reason to hate the West? I fear that Al Qaeda is a winner in this war and they didn't even have to fight.
So if it wasn't Al Qaeda as Downerpants vociferously asserts today, it was the nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. But they don't exist, so why did we kill all those people?
Downerpants enthusiastically suggests, as he is known to do, that the Iraq war was waged because Iraq was not complying with a UN resolution on weapons of mass destruction (which it didn't have). So Iraq wasn't complying with a UN Resolution, was the UN involved in the war? If not, why not?
The more I look at it, the harder it is going to be to explain this war to my kids, if and when I have them.
