Left leaning Columnist

[Bingo]

Interesting read if nothing else.

Link

[Mike F]

Right about what?

• That Iraq was awash with WMD's?
• That the smoking gun was going to be a mushroom cloud?
• That Iraq was intimately linked to Al Qaeda and the war on terror?
• That the US forces would be greeted with sweets and flowers as liberators?
• That a 'Shock & Awe' strike followed by a lightning quick capture of Baghdad could minimize casualties?
• That the country could be reconstructed in 6 months, funded by Iraqi oil?

None of that will ever be true.

Now I'll fully admit that the election apparently went better than expected, due in equal parts to the bravery of the Iraqis and the state of security that essentially shut down the country for election day. However it's still far, far too early to make any decision on whether:

• Iraq as a country will hold together
• Iraq will have a sucessful democracy
• Iraq will serve to spread democracy through the region
• The world will be safer

One better than expected day doesn't make a good war. And even if democracy does hold in some form, does that justify one country thumbing it's nose at the rest of the world, and militarily enforcing it where it sees fit?

[Cowperson]

Bush was wrong in the sense there was no (zero) WMD there, the principle reason for going there. Dead wrong. Nothing. Zilch.

You could go into Zimbabwe with less trouble and restore democracy there. Or a lot of other places.

But . . . . sticking a fork in the Middle East and establishing a democratic trend in that country and others, if it sticks, could well be one of the momentous turning points of the coming century.

"Not all the Muslims of the world are terrorists, but all the terrorists in the world are Muslims" - a famous quote from last year in an Egyptian newspaper. Its more important to have the democratic trend in Iraq than it is in Zimbabwe.

But that's not why he said he went there in the first place. So he wasn't right. And I'm a supporter of the war and still am. With friends like me . . . .

Cowperson

[Agamemnon]

Originally posted by Cowperson@Feb 1 2005, 08:39 PM
But . . . . sticking a fork in the Middle East and establishing a democratic trend in that country and others, if it sticks, could well be one of the momentous turning points of the coming century.

This is what I always thought could be the biggest/best thing about the war in Iraq. If democracy can take root there, it will probably be better for the average joe than monarchy/dictatorship/religious government.

Of course, back in the day the thought was that if the US could stop Communist expansion in Vietnam, they could check it all over SE Asia. Retrospect has proven that the American's didn't understand who and what they were fighting, though at the time they surely thought they did.

Early on I loathed comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam. As the occupation drags on and bombs keep going off every day, I get more and more convinced that the conflicts will be comparable.

[Lanny_MacDonald]

The author is asking people to do what he is doing. Ignore the lies and make the best of the situation. Sorry, I will never look past the base reasons for doing something and forgive someone just because the end result exceeds my expectations. Bush and Co. were dead wrong. $200,000,000,000 later he is still dead wrong. The cuts he is making to American programs to stabilize Iraq is just wrong on so many levels. It would be like the Liberals taking a boat load of money from Alberta and giving it to Quebec, and almost killing the oil and gas industry. Think people in Alberta would ever forgive the Feds for doing that? Oh wait, we know that answer already!