Originally posted by Gadfly
I realize that some of you will not read these links; your narrow minds are already filled to the brim with your own brand of political straw. For the others that may have doubts, here is the basis and the facts on the current war on Iraq. The first link is opinion, the rest are primary source data from the United Nations and the U.S. Government, with some major media links.
Thank you for researching and providing reasonable links to sources of information.
The most telling statement from Blix's report to the UN is the following because it is his best judgement of how to interpret all of the evidence that he and his inspectors saw:
"These reports do not contend that weapons of mass destruction remain in Iraq, but nor do they exclude that possibility. They point to lack of evidence and inconsistencies, which raise question marks, which must be straightened out, if weapons dossiers are to be closed and confidence is to arise."
This is doubt...
When it comes to killing someone, even an Iraqi soldier and putting US soldiers in harms way... there should be no doubt.
The matter of WMD existing or not will be resolved as time goes by. That will be an irrefutable fact.
If none are ever found.... it will be very sad.... I was hoping to be proven wrong by now.
Originally posted by Gadfly
Fact that there are restrictions on our freedoms, I can only offer that we are in a War
And I offer that it is our laws and our constitution which set us apart from the very countries and terrorism that we are fighting against.
And we cannot set these freedoms aside even during times of war. We have in the past, and in doing so we were wrong. I'm referring to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII.
That wrong is not being repeated today. However, the Bush Administration is perpertrating an equally egregious wrong with incarcerating citizens and denying them due process.
The right to defend oneself against accusations from the government, the right to have councel, the right to a speedy trial are fundamental rights... and are the foundation of our democracy, and is what keeps us from suffering under tyranny.
I have no problem with the government wire taping phones, and conducting secret searches, invasive searches at air ports, taking finger prints and photographs...
But when the government incarcerates a citizen and denies them their freem to pursue their life - not just a few days... but years, that government must be held accountable, and must have reasonable cause. And a person must be allowed to see the evidence against them and refute it with proper legal representation.
The government has nothing to fear by telling the truth or by hearing the truth... and the government in the pursuit of its goals to protect its citizens is not served by detaining an innocent person.
Secret evidence can be held in a court specially designed for that purpose - this has been done before with the prosecution of spies - like Pollard and Aimes.
The right that our constitution gives every citizen is the presumption of innocence... it makes no exclusion based upon war or peace time.
There is nothing in the constitution which allows the bill of rights to be waved - at any time, for any reason.
And if a terrorist can take our rights away or Mr. Bush can arbitrarily take them away in order to do his job, then we have no need for the constitution or for the laws created by our representatives...
We will become the very enemy we are fighting.
If no WMD are found, history will decide whether or not Mr. Bush knowling mislead the American people. And no doubt Historians will debate for years the purposes behind it.
