The war in Iraq

[Ironside]

There?s no problem with ousting the Saddam Hussein regime and liberating the people of Iraq. That?s a great thing that?s happened. Saddam Hussein needed to go. It?s the manner in which President Bush decided to do it, that's wrong.

Afghanistan was clearly harboring those that attacked us, as well as allowing them to set up training camps. After investigating 9/11, the CIA learned al Qaida was behind the attacks. We knew where they were holed up. We asked the Taliban, Afghanistan's governing body, to turn Osama bin Laden (the al Qaida leader) over to the United States. The Taliban flipped us the finger, and they got what they deserved. An invasion. That was in direct response to 9/11.

The Bush Administration exploited 9/11 to go to war with Iraq.

They misled Congress and the Senate with a lot of accusations. Their Intelligence was flawed at best. Their justifications for invasion were WMD (weapons of mass destruction), the threat Saddam Hussein was rapidly becoming and how we couldn?t wait until the threat was eminent. President Bush spoke of the British learning that Iraq had been shopping for uranium in Africa. They said the U.S. had spotted chemical bunkers from spy satellites. They had news conferences, equipped with satellite photos and all. The circles and arrows pointing to these bunkers with the dreaded "chemicals."

Then they argued about the gassing of "his own people." I agree, totally unacceptable. However, I doubt you can hardly call them "his people", for they opposed him. That doesn?t make it right, but it definitely adds a nifty little spin to it.

When you start adding all these allegations up, they seem like there?s a real need for action and fast. It?s a scare tactic that worked on the minds of an American society that had just been viscously attacked on 9/11, the year before.

Actually, the argument then became, how should Iraq be punished for violating the resolutions. The United Nations wanted to wait things out. They had just gotten Inspectors back into Iraq. But, the defiant Bush Administration insisted on invading, immediately!

So, the United States invades Iraq and finds all the allegations to be much less than even close to what we had expected them to be.

Those bunkers that our spy satellites spotted have now been searched, and come up dry. There were no WMD. We later find out, the British rumors of uranium was not information collaborated by the CIA.

Now, as a last resort comes the argument of human rights violations. Saddam Hussein was no threat to the United States of America. Iraq was not a threat to their neighbors. Saddam Hussein was a threat only to the Iraqi people.

The Bush Administration had time to this coup right. They rushed into invading Iraq and now it?s a quagmire. Most of us believed Iraq had possessed WMD, but I (for one) certainly never thought of Iraq as a threat to the United States of America. Saddam Hussein?s a punk, nothing more.

Bush has shown us how he doesn?t work well with others. He?s arrogant and he lacks diplomacy and patience.

The war on terror is about 9/11 and those that attacked us, as well as, other terrorist organizations and those that harbor them. There is no evidence of an Iraq / al Qaida connection, nor an Iraq / World Trade Centers attack connection.

This Administration went to war in Iraq not knowing what they were talking about. They sent our troops into battle on a bunch of trumped up allegations. They sent our troops into battle on flawed evidence.

Or, they lied.

How can that be acceptable?

Bush said during the Republican Convention...

"My father was the last president of a great generation. A generation of Americans who stormed beaches, liberated concentration camps and delivered us from evil."

Now we know, what he was eluding to, then.

He said, "Our military is low on parts, pay and morale. If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report ... Not ready for duty, sir."

Then with an unavoidable "war on terror" in Afghanistan, Bush decides to attack Iraq, too!

He went on to say, "The world needs America's strength and leadership, and America's armed forces need better equipment, better training, and better pay."

Does he believe, after being in office for two years, our military suddenly became prepared for more than one major war at a time? Or, was he just using political rhetoric, at the time he made that statement?

And then he said, "A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam. When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming."

Lessons learned? Victory must be overwhelming? Maybe this is why he was so fast to announce ?Mission Accomplished" shortly after "Shock-n-Awe?"