Liberal leaps of logic
Reader comment on item: Iraq's Weapons & The Road to War

Submitted by David Wolf (United States), Jun 4, 2003 at 16:08

Leave it to a Canadian to assail our administration n the grounds of "Lying".

How can someone with absolutely no connection to the bureaucracy, or the machinations of the US state department, declare in such a pat manner, that Bush and Blair "...lied.They knew they were lying."
How do you know that?

Point by point, no country was "destroyed"- the vast, overwhelming majority of the physical damage to Iraq was done by Saddam's minions before and during the war. We know that they deliberately allowed certain parts of the civilian infrastructure to disappear- for the purpose of punishing certain segments of the populace, and so he could trot any left-leaning journalists (Europeans) to the site and proclaim it was damaged or dilapidated as the result of US-led sanctions. When you weigh those situations skeptically, which you apparently don't,rather than swallowing the liberal party line, you can only deduce that in the face of Saddam's years of profiteering at the expense of absolutely every aspect of non-miliatry society, you can only conclude that Saddam was really to blame.
As far as the Iraqi's ability to "threaten" anyone, just what do you think they were doing for the last 12 years in spite of their defeat in GW1? Having the abilty to hit a mall in downtown Kuwait City certainly constitutes the abilty to harm others, and certainly obviates your contention to the contrary.
Finally, your use of the age-old liberal canard that somehow people in a mass grave could be complicit in their own death is ludicrous- niether did they get themselves murdered, nor did the US get them murdered. Saddam did it. Past failings of US (or any other country ) foriegn policy is no reason to impugn their every act the way you try to with that statement.

The French built Iraq a nuclear reactor of the type specifically prohibited by the IAEA, but the Israelis were condemned for destroying it. Aren't we all grateful that they did, in hindsight? Are you savaging the French in the same manner- that a past wrong is license to condemn every act? Where is your scorn for the French, who to this very day support regimes in their former colonies that practice human bondage? By your logic, the French are just as much to blame for the war in Iraq.
Way to ascribe your negativity to an entire government!
People who are predisposed to be contrary to authority always rely on specious and mostly rhetorical arguments based on sheer sentimentality.

Let me ask you this- what do you make of the extraordinary levels of cyclosarin and VX components found by the allies in the Tigris and Euphrates immediately upon arriving in Iraq? They're not naturally-occurring chemicals, you know.
What of the mobile laboratories that have been found ( exactly as they were described by Iraqi defectors )? Are you expert enough to offer an opinion on whatever non-military uses they might have, or are you dismissing them out of hand because you're inclined to disbelief?

For anyone with half an open mind, those finds confirm our government's contentions. Keep in mind, they have had more than a decade to hide their intent- notably the several months of saber-rattling before the war. Why is shocking to you that nothing (that you find satisfying) has been found, and why are you so condemning only 8 weeks after the end of fighting? Has your patience run out, or were you more likely champing at the bit to indict the allies?

Try to imagine that some things occur outside the sphere of your understanding- that your belief that Bush et al were "lying" may be just your belief.

DW

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