The answer to that is 911 changed everything.
Oh I forgot. White is black, Up is Down, Wrong is Right, Peace is War, and Slavery is Freedom. I keep forgetting...
Would the US and allies have even thought about invading Iraq before 911?
The news is out that there was an intent to attack Iraq within the US before 911. The top policy makers on Iraq had been outstanding proponents of doing that very thing and one of them even published a paper arguing for that (entitled "securing the realm", referring to Israel). This is all public knowledge.
And no allies suggested attacking Iraq except that the US was going to go in. You can even hear this in Blair's stated position. He felt that if the US was going to go in it would be better to have everyone fall in to support the US than let it go alone.
So, at that time the entire world, not just US Intelligence, knew Saddam had WMD.
Untrue and proven untrue. It was known that he had had WMDs and there was a question whether there were still some stocks remaining. If you remember right most of the world was against the invasion including our longest time and biggest allies. It was suggested we could not know at the time and UN inspections would work. We argued that it was known by us (even where they were) and inspections would be useless until it was too late.
The proof is in. The US was wrong, and the critics were right. Either admit it and move on or continue to spin spin spin.
We knew people in his administration had contacts with Al-Qeada members.
Everyone has contacts with Al-Queda members, including us. His ties were nothing suggestive of an intimate relationship where he would be willing to help them. The proof is in, you are wrong.
How hard would it have been for Saddam to sell some yellowcake (that we took 1.7 tons of from Tuwaitha, and by the way, the last time anybody saw a seal on it was in 98) and some terrorsts makes a few dirty bombs out of it and blows up a few of them in the US?
What I find interesting is the contortions your type must go through simply to deny reality. Remember what the argument was before the invasion? He didn't have enough nuclear material to make his own bombs and so he was actively importing it from elsewhere. Now you are saying he had more than enough to make weapons so he would be exporting it? Does that even make sense to you?
And you know what is really lame, even if the above was true, an IAEA inspections process would have reduced that possibility. Our invasion increased the possibility of materials falling into hands of enemies many many many times. This was known and stated by intelligence officials (our intelligence officials) before the invasion. The proof is in, they were right, you are wrong.
There would be another outcry about why we didn't connect the dots.
Don't you get it, there already has been another outcry? There was an outcry of why the members of this administration were unable to connect the dots regarding the pointlessness in invading Iraq? The report is in. The question now is why are you continuing not to connect the dots? My guess is you do not like the picture.
Remember there was a majority of people outside the US, good long term allies, that did not see the utility of this. They were proven right. One should not be looking back and trying to make excuses. The proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Everyone got a taste, it sucks.
We were wrong about the WMD for the most part, but that is only 1 of the reasons we indvaded.
That was the major stated reason. To deny that now is simply denying reality. The next major reasons (terrorist connections and imminence of threat to the US and neighboring nations) were also shot down.
The only remaining reasons are that it will help everyone in the long term because it removed a tyranny ro be replaced with a fluorishing democracy that will be the envy of all peoples in the region and cause massive peaceful and stability causing uprising against their current governments to change them into similar democracies. With that there will never be terrorism or war or poverty again. That is the remaining stated reason. Time for someone to wake up, the neocons are dreaming.
Ah, so how much Oil is the US getting out of this deal?
It is not so much how much oil as in we get oil to sell. It is about stabilizing access to that oil. An enemy sitting on top of massive oil reserves has the ability to step on us in economic ways. A friend won't. Anyone that thinks Blood for Oil means we get it and start selling it for our own profit just doesn't get it.
And I would like you to answer this question. Who is running Iraq right now?
I honestly have no idea.
It is an interim government which is supposed to be representational, though the reps were picked by us to reflect our own democratic representational ideals instead of their own. The next government will be the same, only perhaps with a little bit of the deck less stacked to our interests.
Thankfully it is not as tyrannical as Hussein's. I already said I know a bit about this and the feeling of Iraqi's toward this. I dispute contra's claims that Iraqi's are mostly aligned with the insurgents or that the insurgents are aligned with Iraqi interests. Many do like the fact that Hussein was removed and dislike the insurgency.
Indeed I am hoping something good can be made out of this fiasco.
That does not change the fact that it was a fiasco. It does not change the fact that all of our original reasons were bogus and the invasion could have been avoided with no loss to us safety wise. It does not change the fact that the next government put in place will be restricted by us such that it will not actually be a true democratic republic for some time. It does not change the fact that we will put limits on their nation's powers and decisions any time they do not coincide with our own. We will have to out of necessity.
It does not change the fact that this was the biggest social engineering project put on by the US government probably in history (save the civil war), and it does not benefit US citizens in any real way. It is a dream, with some arguable benefits for the Iraqi people perhaps, but a dream none the less. Do you honestly believe that democracies will peacefully and stabilizingly appear across the region, and once done there will be no more terrorism?
holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)
"Don't believe I'm taken in by stories I have heard, I just read the Daily News and swear by every word.."(Steely Dan)
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