Why the invasion of Iraq.

Submitted by Geoffrey Lewis (United States), Apr 2, 2006 at 05:41

I have a high opinion of Mr Pipes, as he knows, but I do not share his view on this. Two days before the invasion I met an old friend who had been the British Ambassador to several Arab countries and is a fluent Arabic speaker. I shan't name him lest our Prime Minister deprives him of his pensioon. He greeted me with "Mr Blair has access to all the Middle East experts like you and me. Why the hell doesn't he listen to them?" We agreed it was because he has his own personal Middle East expert, a Mr Bush.

Saddam Husain (a) was not in league with al-Qa'ida, in whose view he was no Muslim, (b) had learned his lesson from the Gulf War and would never attack another country, and (c) having disposed of all his active opponents, was content with his iron grip on Iraq and tolerated no one else's atrocities.

I heard Blair actually saying on the BBC news that the world is more stable now. Shall we one day hear that he has been removed from 10 Downing Street by two strong men in white coats? Looking at the present condition of Iraq, I wonder what historians will call the war. The Halfwitted War? The Idiots' War?

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