Quote:
Originally posted by Griff
William Saphires column rattles off the names of the jackels seeking influence in New Iraq, Iran Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, and France.
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Interesting how the Republicans are always citing the Liberal Media as being a mouthpiece for the Dems' policies, when they have their own mouthpieces in Safire and Limbaugh. I mean, here we have Safire attempting to lend a hand (by doing what Bush has repeatedly failed to do - presenting evidence...well, claims of evidence, anyway...of actual Iraqi nefariousness), sort of like a Conservative Republican mouthpiece.
On a couple of points, I do agree...the UN Blix-led weapons inspection team is a joke. The only thing the UN ever seems to set out to do is not piss anyone off, ever. And I have no difficulty imagining that Iran and other Arab nations are positioning themselves right now to derive advantage from the probability of war. However, Safire pointing out that "France is not France without Arab oil" seems sort of silly. I mean, we might squeak by here in the US without Arab oil, but there'd be some damn loud and expensive squeaks if our supply got cut off, just like in France. On the other hand, I do tend to agree with the oft-heard opinions that France usually cowers and hopes for the best on the world stage...
War in Iraq will serve several needs...oil and much needed military/industrial appropriations for the sagging economy, retribution for past and future terrorist support, revenge for Iraq's past nose-thumbing of George Sr., and yes, even some moral currency in the liberation of a people who are surely suffering under the bootheel of a classic despot living in the arms of unimaginable luxury while his "people" starve.
War is never a simple matter, and the justification thereof is one of the most difficult and trying things a leader of a nation must ever have to face. I just wish that someone, somewhere, would come up with unassailable proof (like a picture of Saddam standing next to a pile of chemical weapon cannisters or something) of a need to overthrow Iraq for the good of the rest of the world. It would make the whole thing a lot more palatable. All of this "axis of evil" crap is rhetoric. It may well be based in truth, but it is rhetoric designed to rally the homeland around the concept of kicking the ass of someone else's homeland halfway around the world.
The attempts to tie Iraq to 9-11 were a good try, but those ties cited were just too tenuous. We need something as direct as Pearl Harbor's ties to the Japanese before we go in and lay waste to Iraq; at least, we need something like that if this entire nation is to feel secure that war is the only answer.