10-07-2004, 09:26 PM
I'm glad someone brought up Serbia. The major reason we were drawn into that conflict was that our allies in the region (NATO) didn't want to have to deal with 100's of thousands of refugees overrunning their borders and the resultant destabilization of the region. Had the Serbian conflict occurred in Central Africa you can guarantee there would not have been the same level of response.
As for the reasons for going to war with Iraq? At best the Bush Administration overstated their case at worst they lied. As has been said before, had Bush said from the beginning, "We're going to invade Iraq because Saddam is a bad guy and we want to turn Iraq into a democracy," the war would have never gotten off the ground. Instead Bush founded his case for war on imminent threat, WMD's, and a connection to the 9/11 terrorists. All 3 of those pillars have proven to be straw men at best. And in all three cases there was significant uncertainty, doubt, and outright refutation of the intelligence provided to support these claims. In defense of Bush hindsight always makes bad decisions look worse. The problem I have is that even now his administration has been wont to admit error. Maybe he feels like he must 'stay the course' and never show he's wrong but I think that is most pompous and stupid thing to do now. And the rest of the world certainly doesn't think any more highly of us because of it.
Still, sooner or later Saddam or one of his sons may have become a problem. Perhaps an even bigger problem than the one we have now. But of course the judgement of history will never grant us such leniency.
Ok, even if we ignore the arguments about the case for the war I still don't feel Bush did the best job in conducting it. For one, we ignored a lot of well-established military doctrine in suppressing insurgency by not starting with overwhelming force and nailing down the insurgent situation early in order to help the Iraqi people feel safe.
We left countless ammunition depots unguarded as well as the very facilities that might have provided proof of the WMD's we were looking for. Also, we did not have enough manpower to police the borders the way we should have although in retrospect it would have been difficult to foresee the influx of Al Qaeda fighters after major conflict ended. I don't know if a stronger coalition could have helped provide the manpower we needed but the 'coalition of the tokens' sure didn't help much.
From here on out we have to finish this "war" (we never officially declared war) correctly. I can't say unequivocally that Kerry's plan is the correct one but I cannot say more of Bush and I can clearly see where Bush's people have failed miserably already. The fact that one of the most respected men in the military (Colin Powell) has opted not to continue with the Bush Administration says a lot to me.
Again, in the end for me it is a lesser of two evils thing. Bush did not do everything wrong and ultimately he only does what he thinks is best for the country. But his unwillingness to admit fault is scary, much more so than Kerry's confusing/unclear stances. When someone does not admit their mistakes it is doubtful that they are learning from them and that is something we cannot afford to have in a president during this time period of the War on Terror. We may be looking at several decades fighting this war much the same as the Cold War and we need to have smart(er) people at the helm.
As for the reasons for going to war with Iraq? At best the Bush Administration overstated their case at worst they lied. As has been said before, had Bush said from the beginning, "We're going to invade Iraq because Saddam is a bad guy and we want to turn Iraq into a democracy," the war would have never gotten off the ground. Instead Bush founded his case for war on imminent threat, WMD's, and a connection to the 9/11 terrorists. All 3 of those pillars have proven to be straw men at best. And in all three cases there was significant uncertainty, doubt, and outright refutation of the intelligence provided to support these claims. In defense of Bush hindsight always makes bad decisions look worse. The problem I have is that even now his administration has been wont to admit error. Maybe he feels like he must 'stay the course' and never show he's wrong but I think that is most pompous and stupid thing to do now. And the rest of the world certainly doesn't think any more highly of us because of it.
Still, sooner or later Saddam or one of his sons may have become a problem. Perhaps an even bigger problem than the one we have now. But of course the judgement of history will never grant us such leniency.
Ok, even if we ignore the arguments about the case for the war I still don't feel Bush did the best job in conducting it. For one, we ignored a lot of well-established military doctrine in suppressing insurgency by not starting with overwhelming force and nailing down the insurgent situation early in order to help the Iraqi people feel safe.
We left countless ammunition depots unguarded as well as the very facilities that might have provided proof of the WMD's we were looking for. Also, we did not have enough manpower to police the borders the way we should have although in retrospect it would have been difficult to foresee the influx of Al Qaeda fighters after major conflict ended. I don't know if a stronger coalition could have helped provide the manpower we needed but the 'coalition of the tokens' sure didn't help much.
From here on out we have to finish this "war" (we never officially declared war) correctly. I can't say unequivocally that Kerry's plan is the correct one but I cannot say more of Bush and I can clearly see where Bush's people have failed miserably already. The fact that one of the most respected men in the military (Colin Powell) has opted not to continue with the Bush Administration says a lot to me.
Again, in the end for me it is a lesser of two evils thing. Bush did not do everything wrong and ultimately he only does what he thinks is best for the country. But his unwillingness to admit fault is scary, much more so than Kerry's confusing/unclear stances. When someone does not admit their mistakes it is doubtful that they are learning from them and that is something we cannot afford to have in a president during this time period of the War on Terror. We may be looking at several decades fighting this war much the same as the Cold War and we need to have smart(er) people at the helm.
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