what he said
Atrios today reminds us of a key concept that I've argued several times on various comment threads:
Of course we must constantly remind ourselves that "WMD" was always intrinsically somewhat of a bullsh[]t argument. It should never have been whether Iraq had some nonconventional weapons, most of which aren't capable of "mass destruction," but whether Iraq was, through any means, a genuine threat to us. Absent an active nuclear program that really just was not the case, no matter how many nasty drums of chemicals Saddam had (or, apparently, didn't have) lying around.
Word. And no nonsense, please, about preventing Iraq from developing into a threat in the future. The other members of Bush's so-called "axis of evil" --North Korea and Iran -- pose much more serious actual nuclear threats, and the Bush Administration has done a poor job of responding to these threats to national security. Focusing on Iraq -- which, in becoming a terrorist training ground, is more of a threat to national security now than before bush launched his pet war -- at the expense of attention to two actual nuclear threats, not to mention diverting troops from hunting for al Qaeda in Afghanistan in preparation for invading Iraq -- was the very definition of incompetence. Alas, the damage is done, and the United States now faces a much less favorable global security situation going forward thanks to the incompetence of Bush and his cronies.
4 Comments:
Ah, As a non American I am astonished how serious many Americans take this war on terrorism.
The whole mess started of course before 9/11. But its full stupidity came into the light when the following question was answered the wrong way. How could it have happened? The US went out to look for the holes in the defence system. I would have thought what would have brought about so much hate that you do such an attack?
Arrogance, blindness and a not so democratic attitude are the biggets things to blame.
The biggest nation in the world now chases some rats with full power. It has provided itself with the exuse to kill by now way more than 300.000 people in Afganistan and Iraq (at the least) to prevent another attack, you know the one that only killed about 3000 on their home land. Seemingly these lives have way more value.
The current US military in Iraq look remarkably like the Empire in Star Wars, part 4. You know a large military force storming a very small desert. And like Luke Skywalker showed, big guns and major equipment doesn't win hearts and peace or even the war if your attitude keeps on creating resistance and make small guys grow big.
The incapabilty of the national government to do some healthy damage control in the New Orleans disaster and support the most stricken poor has opened many European eyes. We sat for weeks watching big gaps between what American (right winged) news stations showed and what really happened outside the zones where the president toured.
The US president really needs to blow up (sadly not only in size) his advesaries to keep the impression that he is doing BIG things.
The Us have a history of creating enemies, mostly some cronies that they supported as long as they defended US interests; think people like Saddam (yes him), Bin Laden (him too), the Shah of Persia(a support that created radical Islam as a banner to flock to), Israel (which gave the Palestinians the same banner to flock to, and made them invent terrorism in order to fight without the least possible means adn grow big from there). This same US condones torture (they wrote the handbook used by all South American dicators), support all kinds of dicators (Pakistan) to defend their interests in the world. Their paranoia for different ideas creates new adveraries all the time. Now they are creating trouble for Chavez in Venuzuela. Why? Because he is a Socialist. By supporting right wing forces the States once again shows it contempt for democratic forces that lead to different outcomes than US interests demand. This arrogance is slowly leaking all power, support and allies away from the States. In Europe we are starting to look at China. They will be very soon openly the biggest power in the world, unless the States start to live their former ideals of democracy. It is painful to see Bush talk of 'our intersts' and not knowing how many Americans he really means. I think it might only be him and his 10 best friends.
Much more peace would have been created by talking and listening and repecting opposing forces. It's in essense like in a domestic quarrel. The people you ignore and don't take serious get really mad. Only by repecting the other side resolution is possible. It would be the really Christian thing to do too.
If you hate this message and click it away, means you show how incapable you are to listen to a opposing voice and how much you are part of the system that keeps on holding up the BIG American dream while you are living in a third world country, where black young people in bad neigbourhoods have a lesser live expectany than young people in Liberia, where more people are illerate or even have hunger than in Argentina, where more people die of car accidents or domestic violence than in the war in Iraq.
The US is in deep trouble and all the efforts to hide it, are digging a deeper hole to fall into all the time.
A European longing for the time you where our best friend and the US really stood for something.
Waving the flag and saluting it every day won't bring that back. It makes me only think that the US very slowly starts to resemble that other state that did a lot of flag waving to hide its deep troubling ideas.
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