Woulda-coulda-shouldas on Iraq

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/wouldacouldashouldas_on_iraq.html ^ | James Lewis

[ventanax5]

Fact 1. We were attacked on 9/11/01, and it was not a one-time threat. Both major branches of Islam are fielding their own terror groups. Iran keeps saying it will conquer the world and make the West "bow down" to its greatness. The Sunni Arabs have a similar ideology in the Muslim Brotherhood, which put Hamas on the front line.

Fact 2. Nuclear weapons are spreading. We can argue about the specifics. The general fact is unarguable, and has to be dealt with. Current most dangerous candidates: Iran and North Korea.

Five years ago, given our miserable intelligence, it was rational to suppose that Saddam was close to nukes. (In fact, he kept the capacity and expertise intact). And surprise: It now turns out that Libya was much closer to nukes than we ever imagined. So today we've knocked out two of those plausible threats, with two left to go.

Fact 3. Europe, the United States, China, India, Japan are utterly dependent on a free flow of Middle Eastern oil at market prices. If there is a real interruption in the oil supply, food will be priced out of the range of the poor, hospitals will close, naval battles will take place, people will die. Oil is blood.

Fact 4. In the real world --- not the wishful world of pundits --- you don't know the future. You make your best estimates. You know the CIA has been wrong on every threatening nuclear bomb project since 1949. Sane policy makers don't expect the CIA to penetrate terror states like Saddam's Iraq. So you make your best estimate, and either freeze in place (which is a policy choice) or move. The United States chose to move. Not to act vigorously in the face of 9/11 would have endangered us more.

[tomnbeverly]

Exactly...

I always ask myself what is it exactly that the Liberals didn’t understand about 19 young Islamic men going to certain death in order to kill as many Americans as possible. You cannot negotiate or reason with that kind of hate. Radical Islam is like the Borg and if you do not fight it you will be assimilated. I thought in this country we Live Free or Die.

What really is a shame is that it won’t just be liberal children dying in the next attack from Islam.

[PGalt]

OUTSTANDING article by James Lewis! Thanks very much for posting. Hooray James Lewis!

[Thombo2]

Good article-yes it was logical to assume Saddam was working on nukes.It’s also logical to assume he was working on and(imo)posessed bio and chem wmd’s.Any way you look at it,he(and his sociopathic offspring)was(were)a threat that needed to be taken out.My only issue is we waited waaay tooo long to send him to his ultimate “reward”.

[stylin19a]

Fact 3. Europe, the United States, China, India, Japan are utterly dependent on a free flow of Middle Eastern oil at market prices. If there is a real interruption in the oil supply, food will be priced out of the range of the poor, hospitals will close, naval battles will take place, people will die. Oil is blood

Fact ?

Fact:
U.S. Crude Oil Production 5,102,000 barrels/day
U.S. Crude Oil Imports 10,118,000 barrels/day
U.S. Crude Oil Imports-OPEC 5,517,000 barrels/day
U.S. Total Petroleum Exports 1,317,000 barrels/day
U.S. Net Petroleum Imports- 12,390,000 barrels/day

so only approx 1/3 comes from OPEC.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/neic/quickfacts/quickoil.html

I suppose we could talk about food & fresh water, but the U.S. sits in the cat-bird seat here too.

[JimRed]

What really is a shame is that it won’t just be liberal children dying in the next attack from Islam.

Unless they hit San Francisco or Ithaca, that is!

[JimRed]

We can't act like Jimmy Carter and survive for long. Let the Europeans and other crybabies pretend, as long as they know they are protected by us.

So, stop protecting those who cry and whine, already!