Yes, providing Freedom and also taking affirmative action against a dangerous enemy
Mark
Freedom to have a government of their own choosing in Iraq exists despite your inability to recognize it.
Let’s consider events that led up to where we are now.
First we had Gulf war 1. Hussein is driven out of Kuwait. Our mandate with the UN prohibits us from going to Baghdad and deposing Hussein. Hussein agrees to allow UN inspections.
Hussein plays a cat and mouse game with inspectors for about eight years or so and fails to account for the WMDs he said he had.
Clinton begins to take action against Hussein while continuing to import Iraqi oil for six out of the eight years he was in office. We imported over 700,000 barrels a day under the UN program. The French and Germans violate the sanctions.
Clinton takes action:
Clinton ordered cruise missile attacks on Iraqi intelligence headquarters in 1993. Clinton also used missile strike to punish Hussein in 1996 because of Hussein’s attacks on the Kurds in Irbil.
In 1998, Clinton also ordered the bombing of 100 key military targets to punish Hussein for failing to cooperate with UN inspections.
Clinton continues to enforce the no fly zone. Hussein continues to be humiliated by the Americans and The Coalition.
Consider the above mentioned instances by Clinton and the humiliating defeat of Hussein’s military by the previous Bush administration. These circumstances alone are enough to create a formidable enemy out of Hussein.
One wouldn’t have to be an Einstein to expect Hussein might just possibly be the kind of guy that would seek revenge on the United States. Only a hapless rube would not expect Hussein to retaliate either directly or vicariously by financing terrorists or by supplying them with dangerous materials. It was reasonable to expect Hussein to take revenge against us at any time.
How could he do it?
Hussein was known to have produced WMDs and had used them before. He certainly had the money and scientists capable of setting up labs in Iraq or anywhere in the world to produce toxins and gasses. Think about how easy it is for an American criminal to set up a meth lab in the U.S.
Hussein remaining in power was indeed a clear and present danger despite anyone’s inability to recognize it.
Hussein was known to have ties to bin Laden
Remember that bin laden had basically declared war on all Americans because in his mind America had declared war on his god. He urged muslims to kill any and all Americans. Hussein offered sanctuary to bin laden. This made Hussein an enemy to all Americans. From the 9-11 report:
2.1 A DECLARATION OF WAR
In February 1998, the 40-year-old Saudi exile Usama Bin Ladin and a fugitive Egyptian physician, Ayman al Zawahiri, arranged from their Afghan headquarters for an Arabic newspaper in London to publish what they termed a fatwa issued in the name of a "World Islamic Front." A fatwa is normally an interpretation of Islamic law by a respected Islamic authority, but neither Bin Ladin, Zawahiri, nor the three others who signed this statement were scholars of Islamic law. Claiming that America had declared war against God and his messenger, they called for the murder of any American, anywhere on earth, as the "individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it."1
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What we do know is that there were talks between the government of Iraq and at times bin ladin himself with Iraq offering refuge to bin ladin.
Again from the 9-11 report:
Quote:
In mid-1998, the situation reversed; it was Iraq that reportedly took the initiative. In March 1998, after Bin Ladin's public fatwa against the United States, two al Qaeda members reportedly went to Iraq to meet with Iraqi intelligence. In July, an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan to meet first with the Taliban and then with Bin Ladin. Sources reported that one, or perhaps both, of these meetings was apparently arranged through Bin Ladin's Egyptian deputy, Zawahiri, who had ties of his own to the Iraqis. In 1998, Iraq was under intensifying U.S. pressure, which culminated in a series of large air attacks in December.
Similar meetings between Iraqi officials and Bin Ladin or his aides may have occurred in 1999 during a period of some reported strains with the Taliban. According to the reporting, Iraqi officials offered Bin Ladin a safe haven in Iraq. Bin Ladin declined, apparently judging that his circumstances in Afghanistan remained more favorable than the Iraqi alternative.
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I don’t expect any hard line leftists, liberals or the blame America first for anything and everything crowd to change their minds about what has happened in Iraq. Maybe some that are on the fence about American interests and national security will at least consider the above.
We were justified in the actions we have taken in Iraq and this is all I have to say except Pipoman and everyone else that agrees with me gave excellent responses LOL.
Flame away ! !
Ez45
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