I am concerned about the apparent disappearance of the will to go to war with Iraq. After 9/11 there was a great deal of discussion as to what caused it and what we should do. Let me present a fact: a New York Times poll in March of 2003 showed that 74 percent of Americans approved of military action against Iraq. If memory serves sometime in October of 2002 Congress overwhelmingly voted to authorize war by a bipartisan 77 percent margin in the Senate and an almost 3-1 margin in the House.
We find now that the usual assertion as to why we went to war was based on the grounds that war was necessary neutralize Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Allow me to expand upon the facts; House resolution 114, which authorized war against Iraq, listed more than 20 reasons for going to war; destroying Iraq's WMDs was only one of the many reasons stated in the resolution.
Here's one that really frosts this fighter pilot's behind: Bush "lied" in referring to intelligence that Iraq possessed WMDs. Lets review: The Intelligence Services of every country represented on the U.N. Security Council, including Russia, China, and France found evidence of Iraq's possession of WMDs. This was shown in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441.
We went to war for the best of reasons: safety of our citizens, threatened by a a Mid-eastern tyrant determined to become the leader of a pan-arab Muslim society. The fact that he made us think he had WMDs and that he wanted to use them is his choice. To destroy him was our choice. And the correct choice it was.
Democracies always find it difficult to maintain a war. In later posts I will discuss the problems faced by the Greeks as they built the governmental outlook we now enjoy but that story is different from our present impatience with wars only in a slight degree.
But I quote Sun Tzu: "In war, then, let your great object be victory, not a lengthy campaign." We are paying the price that all democracies face for letting this war drag on.
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