Posted on 09/08/2008 11:04:18 AM PDT by Nomen Klatura
I want to provide my spouse with a good, cocktail-party-length explanation for why we invaded Iraq. She wants to be better informed and more conversant, and while I can give her the 1/2 hour version, I need it distilled down to about 2 or 3 minutes. Otherwise, she will be lecturing her friends (which she won't do). Care to help?
To whatever the FR forum provides, I will add (because I never hear anyone else say it) that Hussein declared that he had extensive WMD after Desert Storm. He actually listed them. He later told the UN that he destroyed them, but we would not be allowed to inspect or see for ourselves. We would simply have to trust him. We refused to trust him, so we went in by force to check for ourselves. People seem to have forgotten that he made an extensive, troubling declaration. Nobody knows what Hussein truly had, or what he would do with them if he was left in power.
My spouse will use this info to pick-off some potential Obama votes, which she is in a position to do. Hopefully that's a good incentive for the forum to take my request seriously.
Thanks for any constructive help.
Sorry, I know it’s not short. But the actual war resolution has always helped me to bring all mention of conspiracy theories to a sudden and abrupt end. Maybe it would help to summarize the most important,”Whereas” points in the resolution as the summary your wife needs?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021002-2.html
In a raid in Fallujah, as we closed in on Zarqawi ( Bin Laden’s Number 1 man in Iraq) we found a hideout of His that He had just vacated an hour before Our troops arrived. they found on a Table a cardboard box 1/2 the size of a shoe box with 12 long vials of Sarin liquid. enough to kill 10,000 people if used properly.
Who gives a damn who had what! they are all insane! and want to kill anyone, and everyone! that alone is reason to kill them first!!
You don’t “talk” to a Mad dog, you kill it.
you don’t reason, you kill it.
you dont ask it why it is mad at you....YOU KILL IT.
and you dont let it walk away......YOU KILL IT!
Violating 16 UN resolutions is a start. If these resolutions aren’t going to be enforced, why the hell does the UN even exist?
1) Hussein had chemical, biological, and nuclear weapon programs, and was refusing UN inspections.
2) Hussein had ties to terrorists.
3) After 9/11, the United States could not afford to take the risk that Hussein would not give chemical, biological, or nuclear materials to terrorists.
4) We took out Hussein.
I’d look up some issues of New Republic published just prior to the war. The best arguments come from your political adversaries just prior to changing their minds due to political loyalty.
I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for or not.
http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2004/4/16/theCaseForTheWarInIraq
Also, the President’s State of the Union address in 2002, I think, laid it out.
susie
Saddam had WMD, used WMD, after 17 UN resolutions refused to disarm. Every intelligence agency in the world thought he had WMD.
Saddam sponsored and harbored terrorists.
Pres Bush, with the consent of Congress, considered Saddam a serious risk after 9/11. He was removed.
There have been three phases to the Iraq war: Removal of Saddam, al Qaeda Joins the Fight and The Anbar Wakening.
al Qaeda was dealt a strategic defeat in Iraq when the Sunnis rejected them and the surge troops killed them.
I hope your spouse does better than me. Last time I discussed Iraq at a cocktail party, it resulted in a vulgar screaming shoving match. And I said, Mom ..you traitorous bitch.
Why does the UN even exist? Great question, with no answer as far as I can tell!
susie
ROFLMHO!
For 12 years the U.S. and the U.N. had been unable to obtain the definitive, unequivocal, transparent, truthful and complete answer that Saddam Hussein was obligated to provide concerning any and all WMD activity. Post 9/11, the question was - how to go forward, and could we afford to go forward with any doubts about that answer. The national security answer was - no we could not. Every possible pressure and possibility was employed to get the kind of answer from Saddam that was needed - the kind of answer that 12 years of failed diplomacy had been demanding. Saddam Hussein said no, and George Bush ended the charade that the final answer would ever come from Saddam. One can say it was wrong to operate based on faulty intelligence, but that is not an argument, but a Monday morning quarterback (after the fact) excuse. Until we went in, our intelligence estimates were THE ONLY BASIS we could operate on. We risked far more by ignoring them than by believing them to be correct, as everyone did. After 9/11, those risks were too great.
Man, I didn't even see that one commin'!!
bttt
You could also add the virtual trump card about the ‘lies’ part which all liberals hide behind.
The CIA and Pentagon already had contact with numerous Iraqi generals prior to the war. They were arranging for these generals to not be killed in exchange for the generals either surrendering in advance or agreeing not to fight back. And, to a man, those general and other Iraqi officers believed that Saddam has WMD and the Iraqis themselves were preparing to use them and/or flee from them (like they did in 1991).
If Bush was an idiot, so were all Saddams generals (and Joe Biden, Hillary, Algore, Kerry, et al). And so were the intel agencies throughout the world.
And Zarqawi was already in Iraq. Along with Abu Abbas. And Abu Nidal. Those were already terrorists in the top ten right behind Carlos the Jackal.
Do some Googling on Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Iraq to see what they said BEFORE President Bush took office. According to them Saddam was “a threat that would one day have to be dealt with” but, you see, they just didn’t have the balls to do anything — about Iraq, Hussein, or Osama.
4) We took out Hussein.
I’m wondering how those 42 virgins are working out for him?
1. Iraq was a proven aggressor nation in the region. Iraq had to be forcably removed from its occupation of Kuwait by an international coalition. Iraq had a demonstrated willingness to use WMDs. The Kuwait war did not change this.
2. Under the terms of the Kuwait War cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to eliminate its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons programs (not just the weapons themselves). Iraq also agreed to allow unrestricted verification. Iraq provided significant resistance to inspections.
3. Under the terms of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to eliminate the means to deliver WMDs. There were numerous reports of rockets that were found that exceeded agreed upon ranges, making them offensive weapons, not defensive.
4. Under the terms of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to to end its support for international terrorism. Iraq continued its financing of suicide bombers in Israel. It harbored terrorist groups. Many believe that Al Qeada wasallowed to train in Iraq.
6. Iraq violated resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, including: refusing to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq, including an American serviceman, and by failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait. United Nations Security Council Resolution 678 authorized the use of all necessary means to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions.
7. Iraq frequently violated the terms of the cease fire agreement by targeting our fighter jets that were patrolling the no-fly zone. This alone was a justifiable act of war.
8. The President has authority and obligation under the Constitution to take action in order to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States. The 9/11 attacks had given terrorists encouragement that they could hurt us without retribution. It was necessary to demonstrate that this was not the case.
9. 21st century weapons are too effective. You cannot bereactive anymore - you must be proactive. Otherwise millions could die. 21st century war is being fought by proxy. Coupled with WMDs, a relatively small proxy army can do enormous damage. The best defense is to eliminate the source of financing of these proxy armies.
We were attacked on 9-11 and nearly 4000 innocent men, women, and children were killed. Iraq at that time, under Saddam Hussein’s leadership was a rouge state harboring terrorists and thumbing its nose at all of the Western World. Iraq is in a strategically important location bordering Islamo-fascist Iran.
All of the terrorists came from the Middle East. Muslims in the Middle East see the United States as a weak decadent society. The successful attack on the twin towers was an energizing inspiration to radicals everywhere. If we had not responded forcefully there is no doubt that more attacks on our country would have taken place.
Saddam Hussein was a repressive dictator responsible for countless deaths. He had spent hundreds of millions of dollars on weapons development systems. We had more than enough justification to take him down and make an example of Iraq. This also gave us a military presence directly next door to the biggest threat in the Middle East, Iran. Our presence in Iraq has managed to keep the Mullahs in Iran partially restrained.
History will show that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan was not only justified but strategically important now and far into the future. There is also no doubt that we have decimated enemies that would have killed more American’s on our own shores. Even Bin Laden who previously was able to roam freely training terrorists and spreading hate has been forced to live in hiding.
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