Shoorrrttttt post on this war's horrible legacy as regards TERROR

(got no responses when I said 'looonggg' so thought I'd try to hook you). didn't work?

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In matters of war and in matters of setting worldwide precedent, a government who professes to be an enlightened democracy should tread carefully. Our country was hit with a horrendous attack of a scale no one in the general public was prepared to absorb. And yet, we know from the years of terrorist incidents before that it was quite likely to happen.

Ted Koppel on Nightline devoted a series of shows to the subject of how we can be prepared for terrorist assaults and many terrorist experts including Richard Clarke said we are woefully unprepared. This was in 1999.

People were discussing the containment of Saddam Hussein as a vital piece of middle eastern foreign policy. Clinton spoke strongly and took action with strikes against some installations in Iraq. He never invaded Iraq and had a plan to do so if the circumstances warranted. However, Saddam was not openly threatening the world. He was living his profligate life off of oil for food programs, but he and his government were not an active terror threat.

On the contrary, Al Queda had worked in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Africa with bombings of the Kobar Towers, USS Cole, and US Embassies. Once 9/11 took place, we had to react and do so swiftly. The magnitude of the tragedy was so immense, and it was very clear we would be continuously threatened by terrorists unless dramatic action happened.

So, cooperation with governments around the world took place to freeze assets of oranizations and individuals with known connections to terror groups. Investigations and police work rounded up dozens of top leaders with the help of Pakistan, Germany, England, and other countries. At the same time, the US demanded the Taliban government turn over Bin Laden and shut down the terrorist training camps. When the Taliban repeatedly refused, the US and its allies took military action and systematically destroyed the base of Al Queda where they again found or killed many terrorists. A vast majority of the world supported this action through their words, actions, and financing.

However, despite the dearth of evidence, the US government started beating the drum for war against Iraq publicly in the late spring and early summer of 2002. This was around the same time the US unveiled its new defacto foreign policy pillar of preemptive attacks on other nations even when there is no direct aggression from that nation against the US or US allies or interests. We now know that the US administration had been planning a war against Iraq since the very beginning of their rise to power--even before 9/11 attack. The alienation of people around the world had begun. Many reasonable people said, "Okay, we understand fighting terrorism is important. How is Iraq related to this? Saddam's government hates the fundamentalist Al Queda and Osama and his group hate Saddam."

The US administration responded by a series of presentations where they insulted US allies who didn't support the push for war, offered scant evidence of prior weapons programs and very weak connections to Al Queda such as the idea that a wounded member of Al Queda received medical treatment in Iraq proper. Based on Saddam's payment of suicide bombers in Israel, Iraq had been classified as a terror-sponsoring nation. Rolling all of this together along with suspicious reports about aluminum tubes, remote controlled planes, and yellow cake uranium, the administration trumped up a case for war.

Many people including the US Congress blinked. Something didn't seem right about these claims, and yet people felt it would be imprudent to press the administration on their arguments. In the face of 9/11, hard questions would be viewed as not exercising due caution. And so it was, we rolled into Iraq, poured French Bourdeaux into the gutters, welcomed our new allies the Bulgarians and marched into Bagdhad.

I continue to maintain that aside from the relevant question of whether Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which has been
clearly been proven to be a wildly exaggerated claim, there just is no credible evidence of any sort that Saddam had any kind
of relationship with Al Queda let alone that he knew of and aided in the 9/11 attacks. Hearsay about Saddam agents meeting Al Queda agents in Prague notwithstanding, there is no compelling evidence at all about a connection between Saddam and Al Queda. If you are basing a decision to overrun a nation and destroy its infrastructure on such scanty evidence, then you truly are giving license to war on any pretext.

Again, judged against Bush's criterion, we could (and some say SHOULD) declare war on Yemen, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and others. Based on connection to Al Queda, I doubt if Saddam and Iraq would even make the top 10. If we are discussing war on terror as vital to stopping terrorism or at least dramatically rolling it back, then this war has been counterproductive to those goals. We have provided yards of footage which will feed even moderate Muslims a steady diet of provocation. (Yes, there are many moderate Muslims around the world. Please pay attention.) What's worse, there are active terror cells training in the Philippines, Sudan, Somalia and other countries. We are doing next to nothing about resolving those problems. We are doing very little to deal with the remaining Al Queda in the border area of Pakistan and Afghanistan. And we are doing next to nothing to continue building Afghanistan into a working country. Instead, we've unleashed poppy harvests onto the world drug market--something the Taliban government had radically curtailed--and we're giving the poor and disenfranchised in Afghanistan a new target for their blame and resentment.

Do I want Hussein back? Of course not. Do I want the Taliban back? absolutely not. I want Osama's head on a platter tomorrow if it could happen. I don't want terrorists to have any quarter in the world. Unfortunately, I think many more young angry Muslim men have built up a strong resentment of the US because of this war. I believe we have many young people volunteering their services to these radical groups because of this war.

Because all of this transpired under Bush's command, I hold him responsible. I believe many moderate Republicans (yes, there
are some of those too) have and will turn against Bush due to the mismanagement of this war and the provocative and devastating effects it has had on our net safety and place in the world.

And it is SO frustrating to hear people repeat the same lies and ludicrous propaganda the misadministration used to take us to war.

Worse, they seem to believe that * is doing a "great job" on the war on terra. :argh:

He has done next to nothing and the Iraq War has made the problem much, much worse. :(