07-29-2008, 10:53 AM
So far all the arguments I've seen for Saddam having WMDs in 2003 were "oh well there was this mystery train X" or "there was this mystery boat Y" or "well Saddam was a bad guy so of course he had them!" All these are are hunches, guesses, and dare I say wishful thinking.
I don't believe in sending people to war over hunches, guesses, and wishful thinking. The facts for the justification of the Iraq War were cobbled-together at best. Now, we're there, regardless of the reasons, and it seems we're stuck.
John McCain does have a point when he says that we're there now, and pulling out immediately has the potential to cause more harm and more terrorism. The fact is though that he, nor any other neocon, has defined what the goals are in Iraq other than some vague concepts.
I'll support us staying in Iraq for a few more years if someone has a good, specific, effective plan of stabilizing Iraq. Maybe not a "time-table" but a "task-table." No one has put forth a plan and said "this is what needs to be done in Iraq, once these tasks are accomplished, we no longer need to be there." I just don't see that with John McCain. The other parties just want to pull us out immediately, which could cause more harm than good. I don't see a commitment from John McCain to stop this foolhardy cowboy mentality when it comes to foreign policy, either. And quite frankly, I don't see it from Barack Obama. What good is an effective strategy to stabilize a region after messing it up on bad information if we keep making that initial mistake? Remember, it was the Democrats who got us into Vietnam.
Meanwhile, we managed to avoid war with the Soviet Union for almost half a century for Christ's sake! We stood fast against a hostile nation with a nuclear arsenal ready to wipe us off the map at a moments notice! They were a FAR greater threat than Saddam and his 1950's technology was. Yet, in that case, we chose diplomacy. Now we're quivering in our boots over some goat herders with a few grenades and some old Toyotas? Is it because we're only willing to go to war with nations that are far weaker militarily than us?
How exactly do we "win" this war on terror anyway? Bombing people just makes them more resolved to fight against us. Terrorism is a terrible thing, but you are still far more likely to die in a car crash than a terrorist attack. Safety is an illusion. No government, no army, no piece of technology can ever, EVER make us safe.
I don't believe in sending people to war over hunches, guesses, and wishful thinking. The facts for the justification of the Iraq War were cobbled-together at best. Now, we're there, regardless of the reasons, and it seems we're stuck.
John McCain does have a point when he says that we're there now, and pulling out immediately has the potential to cause more harm and more terrorism. The fact is though that he, nor any other neocon, has defined what the goals are in Iraq other than some vague concepts.
I'll support us staying in Iraq for a few more years if someone has a good, specific, effective plan of stabilizing Iraq. Maybe not a "time-table" but a "task-table." No one has put forth a plan and said "this is what needs to be done in Iraq, once these tasks are accomplished, we no longer need to be there." I just don't see that with John McCain. The other parties just want to pull us out immediately, which could cause more harm than good. I don't see a commitment from John McCain to stop this foolhardy cowboy mentality when it comes to foreign policy, either. And quite frankly, I don't see it from Barack Obama. What good is an effective strategy to stabilize a region after messing it up on bad information if we keep making that initial mistake? Remember, it was the Democrats who got us into Vietnam.
Meanwhile, we managed to avoid war with the Soviet Union for almost half a century for Christ's sake! We stood fast against a hostile nation with a nuclear arsenal ready to wipe us off the map at a moments notice! They were a FAR greater threat than Saddam and his 1950's technology was. Yet, in that case, we chose diplomacy. Now we're quivering in our boots over some goat herders with a few grenades and some old Toyotas? Is it because we're only willing to go to war with nations that are far weaker militarily than us?
How exactly do we "win" this war on terror anyway? Bombing people just makes them more resolved to fight against us. Terrorism is a terrible thing, but you are still far more likely to die in a car crash than a terrorist attack. Safety is an illusion. No government, no army, no piece of technology can ever, EVER make us safe.