[tw] : Why Iraq?

“Why Iraq?”
From:	Seth Dillingham	In Response To:	Top of Thread.
Date Posted:	Wednesday, October 22, 2003 6:46:04 PM	Replies:	4

Enclosures:	None.

A thread over on Joggle's forums (of all places) seems to have set me off, a little.

They were talking about the fact that the US is still searching for WMD's in Iraq, so far without any luck. Someone suggested that this is like trying to find cigarettes in your kid's room, after warning him for six months that you were going to search his room for them.

I'll probably regret posting this here, as someone is bound to sTroll in and take a shot at me, but here's my response. (This is not meant to be pro or anti US, it's just an explanation of how I see the situation.)

Quoting usausa:

Should you refrain from disciplining your child because of what he might do if you do discipline him?

Since when is the USA the parent?

There's no evidence that he had weapons of mass destruction during the last few years before the war. None. Remember, the inspectors were there off and on for years before the war, and never found anything.

People keep saying that it takes a long time to find these weapons in such a big country, but it'll take a lot longer to prove they're not there: how do you prove something isn't there, without literally searching every square foot/meter/yard of the entire country?

Hussein was a bad guy, there's no doubt about that. Probably the worst in the region. The US had very good reasons for going into Iraq and deposing Hussein, but there's no evidence the WMDs were one of those reasons.

One good reason to go into Iraq is that the entire middle east is a hot-bed for state-sponsored terrorism. Again, there's no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, nor even that they had any significant connections with Al Qaeda, but Iraq is right in the middle of everything.

Strategically, there's no better country the US could have invaded. Now that they're in place, the military can start putting real pressure on the other nations to stop supporting terrorism or risk paying a price they know they can't afford.

The US needed a base of operations in the Middle East to "project power" into the region. Where else could they have gone? Kuwait's the only country that would have allowed them to increase their presence without an invasion, but it's not strategic enough for the rest of the region, and is way too small.

Consider everything the US government does, especially militarily, through the lense of counter-terrorism. The current "war" in Iraq isn't a war at all, it's just one front in the global war (at least, as the US seems to see it).

Anyway, I'm not making all this stuff up myself. There are lots of intelligence-analysis services (NOT news services) that publish freely-available reports on a regular basis. My favorite is Stratfor.

Discussion Thread:

Re: Why Iraq? (by Jim Roepcke at 10/22/2003)

Rather than snipe at you, let me just say it's nice to hear someone that's willing to look at the situation
- RE: Why Iraq? (by Brian Carnell at 10/22/2003)
  
  At 09:35 PM 10/22/2003, Jim wrote: >I wonder if more nations would have been willing to support the
  - RE: Why Iraq? (by Seth Dillingham at 10/23/2003)
    
    On 10/22/2003, Brian Carnell said: >Seth's reasoning would never have cut it I agree completely. "Hussein
Re: Why Iraq? (by Brian Carnell at 10/22/2003)

At 07:54 PM 10/22/2003, Seth wrote: >There's no evidence that he had weapons of mass destruction during
Re: Why Iraq? (by Clark Venable at 10/23/2003)

Have you read the statement from David Kay detailing their findings to date? See http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/
- RE: Why Iraq? (by Seth Dillingham at 10/24/2003)
  
  On 10/23/2003, Clark Venable said: >They may not have found actual WMD's (though they're not through
Re: Why Iraq? (by Danny Ayers at 10/25/2003)

Hmm, I doubt whether anyone outside the US would even contemplate the parent-child analogy, but following
- RE: Why Iraq? (by Brian Carnell at 10/26/2003)
  
  At 06:24 AM 10/25/2003, Danny Ayers wrote: >Hmm, I doubt whether anyone outside the US would even contemplate

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“Why Iraq?”