Infidel, one of us

Submitted by Charles Gruenspan (United States), Dec 7, 2006 at 23:29

Infidel stated, "I do believe that Iraq, under the leadership of Saddam was a major threat to the world, provided of course if they were in possession of WMD's or had access to them."

I infer from this that you believe that had Iraq actually had some mobile anthrax labs, as Secretary Powell testified before the UN, the War in Iraq would have been worthwhile, but otherwise it is not. To me, that is mind boggling.

If simply ridding the Middle East of potential WMD threats were enough to justify the US incursion into Iraq, then we have already accomplished much more than we expected. We did not know that Pakistan was exporting nuclear weapons technology, and we did not know that Libya had a nuclear WMD program. Both of these threats, which were far more serious than what we expected to find in Iraq, were both terminated as an unforseen benefit of the Iraq War. As I stated earlier, it was never just about WMD, but stopping Jihad.

I assume your referring to Saudi Arabia as "our best friend," was meant to be sarcastic. FDR met with Stalin, and we fought the same enemy, but that never made the USSR "our best friend." Saudi Arabia is perhaps an even greater threat to world peace than Iraq ever was, (just as the USSR was), but it was not in violation of any UN sanctions, so we had no pretext to invade it. The best way to combat Wahabism, therefore, was to surround it with Democracy, in the hope that more freedom next door would cause changes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Syria, (just as expanding freedoms resulted in ending Communism without having to fire a shot).

The nationality of the 9/11 hijackers is of no significance in this struggle. As you point out, they came from two Arab countries with whom the US has good relations, but they also reflected the nationalities of the top leaders of Al Qaeda, who both consider the regimes in their countries of origin as their arch enemies. The point is, this is not a war against any country, but against Islam, or at least the way Islam is currently preached. I stick by my prior premise: the war in Iraq is merely a front in the war against Jihadism, with democratic freedoms being used as our main WMD's.

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