Posted on 08/21/2002 4:16:24 PM PDT by ml/nj
Let me state up front: I wasn't in favor of the "Gulf War" then, and while many are talking about invading Iraq now I'm not in favor of that either. I could discuss that if anyone wants to.
But my question tonight is: What if we never went to war with Iraq? What if we just let Hussein take over Kuwait, and maybe move on to Saudi Arabia?
Would 9/11 have happened? If it would have happened anyway, would our position be stronger than it is now?
My guesses are No and Yes.
I guess No, there wouldn't have been a 9/11 attack upon the United States by Islamic Fundamentalists. Hussein strikes me as many things, but he doesn't strike me as more than conveniently Muslim. He was at war with Fundamentalist Iran, and if he moved on the Saudis, he would have been at war with Fundamentalist Saudi Arabia. Would these guys have had the luxury of turning their ire toward us? I doubt it.
But if they did, I think we would have been in a much stronger position. Either Hussein would be on our side helping to root these people out or he wouldn't. (I think he would have been.) If he would have been on our side, his people would have provided beaucoup informers and maybe even military support, but if not it would have been much easier politically to move against him now. And he would have largely been in control of Persian Gulf oil. We could have taken those oil fields from him alone with fewer naysayers in the Muslim world than we have now.
I haven't heard anyone else ask my what if question. I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others.
ML/NJ
I've always found that perfecting my typing skills is an ongoing battle.
I didn't notice any references though
"There are none so blind as those who will not see."
no note from your wife
Paging Dr. Freud. Someone slipped over here.
but we all appreciate the time you put in to filing a personal profile.
Well, thank you very much, but it's just a little HTML, anybody can do it. Well, almost anybody.
Holy Mackerel.
Is it just me, or is it starting to get warm in here?
And it's so appropriate: "Did we quit when the Germans attacked Pearl Harbor? No!"
I don't know. Looks like it stopped all of a sudden.
And what, exactly, do you think she meant to convey by her "We have no opinion ..." statement?
Definition of opinion from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage.
1 a : a view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter b : APPROVAL, ESTEEM
2 a : belief stronger than impression and less strong than positive knowledge b : a generally held view
3 a : a formal expression of judgment or advice by an expert b : the formal expression (as by a judge, court, or referee) of the legal reasons and principles upon which a legal decision is based
Groucho Marx
Grammar, then. Not typing. Fair enough. Well, it would have to be grammar, because it couldn't be an attempt at humor. I mean, that'd be just pathetic.
You're right. If I were a piano company I'd make plaster casts of her legs before they're lost to medical science.
I guess my complaint is that some people think, if they can manage to work in a comparison to Hitler, that they've thrashed their opponent's arguments so thoroughly there's nothing he can say in reply. What they're really done is change the argument to Hitler without really addressing the other person's arguments. Radio talk show host Dennis Prager, whom I listen to here from Los Angeles, I don't think has ever gone two day in a row without mentioning Hitler. To me it's the mark of a second class mind. He's irritating in other respects too. The other day he announced that compassion is the key element of character and that ever since he was a little boy he's always had more compassion than anyone he never knew. Talk about humility! It's running out the enlarged pores in his nose.
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