Losing Faith
You might think that the weather should be all sunny and warm when it's summer but not in Finland - rainy, windy and cold is how I'd describe the situation for the past week. And rainy days bring rainy entries:
We have come to a point where most Americans finally believe that Bush misled the people to the war in Iraq. This is a bit unfortunate situation since the thing about "misleading" should have been pretty obvious from the beginning. The thing is that the people should NOW be more FOR the war than against it. Let me explain something:
A)After 9/11 many Americans came to believe that Iraq was a direct threat to their security (WMDs, Al-Qaeda ties). Liberating the people of Iraq and pushing the region toward a reform was not a priority to the majority of
the American people. Most likely these are the same people who now have "switched sides" to join the anti-war camp since no WMDs or Al-Qaeda ties were found.
B)It should have been obvious from the beginning that Saddam was not a direct threat to anyone but to his own people. He had tried to take over Iran once and failed and the west made it clear that Kuwait is out of Saddam's reach. Saddam was not a religious fanatic who'd strike the US for religious reasons. However It's believed that Saddam was trying to find loopholes from UN rules and was waiting for an opportunity to start rebuilding his arsenal of weapons. When it comes to human and political rights - Saddam's Iraq was moving absolutely nowhere.
Neo-conservatives demand the US to take action before crises emerge. It doesn't specify whether those crises would have to be a direct threat to the US or to its interests in some region. This is of course why the war emerged. It was a pre-emptive strike, authorized by the Bush Doctrine (a variation of the Wolfowitz Doctrine), aimed at a region that's in a desperate need of reform - the kind of a reform which would in the end turn out to be amazingly beneficial to the US and to the rest of the world. Saddam's Middle-East was not changing, post-Saddam Middle-East is.
So why should the Americans support the war now more than ever? The fact remains that we have come a long way and a lot of progress has been made - so much that it'd be foolish to give up or to even start to think about giving up. Iraq has formed a democratically elected government and the US has soon trained enough Iraqi security forces to move the responsibility entirely to the Iraqi government and military. A success in Iraq is possible and vital. If it does happen it will be maybe the most significant thing the US has done for the world since Reagan brought Communism down (well maybe not all by himself).
Soon 2000 soldiers and a bit more than 20 000 civilians (don't even think about trying to make a point with that fuzzy estimate which states that the number is over 100 000 - it's ludicrous) have died and now the Iraqis, Americans and the rest of us must prove that it has definitely been worth it and that there simply was no other way to bring a reform.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/16/opinion/polls/main702487.shtml
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160958,00.html
We have come to a point where most Americans finally believe that Bush misled the people to the war in Iraq. This is a bit unfortunate situation since the thing about "misleading" should have been pretty obvious from the beginning. The thing is that the people should NOW be more FOR the war than against it. Let me explain something:
A)After 9/11 many Americans came to believe that Iraq was a direct threat to their security (WMDs, Al-Qaeda ties). Liberating the people of Iraq and pushing the region toward a reform was not a priority to the majority of
the American people. Most likely these are the same people who now have "switched sides" to join the anti-war camp since no WMDs or Al-Qaeda ties were found.
B)It should have been obvious from the beginning that Saddam was not a direct threat to anyone but to his own people. He had tried to take over Iran once and failed and the west made it clear that Kuwait is out of Saddam's reach. Saddam was not a religious fanatic who'd strike the US for religious reasons. However It's believed that Saddam was trying to find loopholes from UN rules and was waiting for an opportunity to start rebuilding his arsenal of weapons. When it comes to human and political rights - Saddam's Iraq was moving absolutely nowhere.
Neo-conservatives demand the US to take action before crises emerge. It doesn't specify whether those crises would have to be a direct threat to the US or to its interests in some region. This is of course why the war emerged. It was a pre-emptive strike, authorized by the Bush Doctrine (a variation of the Wolfowitz Doctrine), aimed at a region that's in a desperate need of reform - the kind of a reform which would in the end turn out to be amazingly beneficial to the US and to the rest of the world. Saddam's Middle-East was not changing, post-Saddam Middle-East is.
So why should the Americans support the war now more than ever? The fact remains that we have come a long way and a lot of progress has been made - so much that it'd be foolish to give up or to even start to think about giving up. Iraq has formed a democratically elected government and the US has soon trained enough Iraqi security forces to move the responsibility entirely to the Iraqi government and military. A success in Iraq is possible and vital. If it does happen it will be maybe the most significant thing the US has done for the world since Reagan brought Communism down (well maybe not all by himself).
Soon 2000 soldiers and a bit more than 20 000 civilians (don't even think about trying to make a point with that fuzzy estimate which states that the number is over 100 000 - it's ludicrous) have died and now the Iraqis, Americans and the rest of us must prove that it has definitely been worth it and that there simply was no other way to bring a reform.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/16/opinion/polls/main702487.shtml
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160958,00.html
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posted by MSandt at 5:27 PM
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