AP Reporter Reviews Powell's Case For War

[Sir O]

The war in Iraq was for a number or reasons, the largest being the threat posed by a regime who defied international law and was pursuing weapons of mass destruction. Now if you don't think that at some time in the future, these weapons would have been sold to or stolen by people wishing to do us harm, you are as naive as they come. Yes, it is a great side benefit that the Iraqi people can be free - in time - but this was about eliminating a potential threat.

There was no threat. It was all fabricated. Real threats do exist...but not in Iraq.

And don't give me this "Our troops are dieing every day" crap. You think that doesn't affect the people in power, the people who signed the order to put them in harms way? This is a military of volunteers, ask someone who's served what 'Charlie-Mike' means, and you'll understand that they have to get the job done, because that is what they need to do to protect you.

Yes, anyone who serves in the military knows that their lives may be put on the line at some point. That still doesn't give government free license to put their lives on the line without proper justification.

Oh, one more thing on top of that...this war was not to deflect attention away from the economy, the economy is not that bad. Yes, unemployment is high (Hi Gooch), but the economy has been growing at an average of 2% a year. Compound 2% over 30 years, every Eauropean country would die to have that. The economy is fine, it's people like you that cause panic

The state of the economy deserves another thread if you really want to get into it. But saying "it's growing by 2% a year, it's just dandy" is not accurate.

Well, at least a war was planned after Saddam decided to wipe his ass with the ceasefire completely and kick weapons inspectors out of Iraq. Unfortunate that a certain former president didn't do anything about it.

You can say his name. I dislike Clinton about as much as I dislike Bush. But this war was not planned because Iraq was in violation of UN sanctions.

"To preserve a military stronghold in the Middle East"

Can you explain that reasoning , please? Why would we let an enemy of ours just break a ceasefire and not do anything about it? Sure, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and was a threat to the region until we knocked them out, but it's not like we needed to check up on them, right? So, I guess we could just let a lil thing like that slide.

A: We have bigger fish to fry. Where is Bin Laden?

B: Inspections were working. The fact that Hussein had no arsenal left to defend his country should support this. It's not like we were "doing nothing", UN inspectors were there and taking care of whatever weapons were left. But you'll probably tell me that the UN is meaningless...

Now, Bush has said that he knows we will find WMDs. Remains to be seen, but WMDs weren't even necessary to wage this conflict. Saddam was suppose to prove himself to the world that he was not building an arsonal, that he was not pursuing weapons programs, and that he had destroyed all stockpiles.

He never proved himself. And he had ten years to do it. And he was given so many chances. All he had to do was prove that he wasn't doing shit, and he could have merrily killed, raped, and maimed his own people till he was old and grey and jerking it while Uday carried on the family business.

But he didn't. And we were not about to take the chance that he has them.

So we divert our attention from Al Qaeda, the real threat, and focus on a petty dictator who may or may not be a threat, but could easily be taken care of after the imminent threat, the PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY ATTACKED US, is removed. How many hijackers on the 9/11 flights were Iraqis? And how many were Saudis?

Maybe it all comes down to what Doc said earlier in this thread...something about giving the government the benefit of the doubt. I refuse to give government the benefit of the doubt. I expect evidence when they say there is a threat, I expect accountability for their actions, and I expect honesty in their words.

I suppose not everyone holds government to such high standards.