GS writes: The first sentence in your article is a direct contradiction to everything else you wrote. Which way is it? If there was sufficient cause for the American military to invade Iraq why were we not told:
1. There is no evidence linking Iraq with 9-11.*
2. Iraq’s WMD programs probably had been dismantled by 1998.
3. Any involvement in Iraq would grow into a regional conflict with Iran as the centerpiece.
4. Us and our allies will have to accept more terrorism on our own soil(s). Spain found this out the hard way. So did we in 1995 and 2001.
5. Our republican form of government is a uniquely Judeo-Christian concept. How in the world are we going to install such a concept of government on people who hate both Jews and Christians? That’s like asking Americans to accept an Ayatollah as supreme dictator. Not likely to be popular.
6. Iraq will likely spiral out of control with someone worse that Sadaam eventually coming to power.
7. Our constitutional liberties will be continuously assaulted – even while we preach freedom to the rest of the world. Abominations like the Patriot Act, CAPPS II, biometric ID cards and police-state-like tracking of anybody who travels, etc., etc., etc., – all in the name of security of coarse, will become commonplace.
I agree with much of what GS says here. Still, none of it changes the fact that Iraq repeatedly violated a cease-fire agreement. That is perfectly adequate justification for a declaration of war, and has served as such for many a historical war. The fact that the Bush administration did not choose to declare war on that basis – did not declare war at all, of course – does not eliminate the existence of the justification. Of course, being justified and being optimal are two entirely different things. Indeed, this failure to make a solid case, not only for a declared war against global jihad but even against Iraq, is one of the reasons that I suspect George Bush’s handling of the war will be considered to be incompetent by future military strategists.
* There’s evidence linking him with OK City, however, as well as significant support for terrorists. Then again, we haven’t exactly been invading the Palestinian Authority over the latter and it has far more direct links with al-Qaida than Hussein ever did.