IN an op-ed column published in yesterday's Wall St Journal titled "Why We Went to War in Iraq." Douglas Feith, unrepentant neocon who is incidentally humping a new book, lays out the 5 major reasons that Bush decided to invade Iraq.
I think many of us who regret what has happened in Iraq would have to admit that we shared the post-9-11 mood of vulnerability and outrage. While we were not persuaded that Saddam was a clear and present danger to the USA, we saw his behavior as immediately dangerous to our ally, Israel. He had thumbed his nose at UN resolutions for years, was misusing the oil for food program, and was openly claiming to have WMD's ready to use, and threatening to acquire nuclear weapons. It certainly was my opinion that something had to be done.
In the months following the Trade Center Attacks on 9-11, I had been reading books like Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations" and was influenced by "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq" by ex CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack. By the time Bush started rattling the saber, I was ready to sign up myself.
How easy it is to forget that we were unified as a country on that score. Today we blame it all on Bush, but i think we should take a moment and recognize that if a few parameters had been changed (eg, control of the looting, more involvement by UN, discovery of WMD's) it might seem like a different game. We know he had the Chemical weapons because we gave them to him; even today no one knows where they went to.
Although Mr Feith still thinks we had no choice other than to bring Saddam down, he does not argue that the post invasion administration was done well. Those mistakes have ruined many lives civilian and military, has wasted billions of US treasure, and has also exacerbated an ideological polarization within our own country.
Today we celebrate Independence Day. We stand in awe of those brave men who signed that letter to the king, in full realization that they might be sacrificing everything for the concept of liberty.
Few of us today can claim to share that level of commitment to an idea. Who will stand in awe of us?
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