Good post, Sparks – as one would expect from a Brit.
I’m beginning to have mixed feelings about this forthcoming conflict. I want the outcome, but no-one likes a war. I DO believe there are some links between Saddam and al Qa’eda – for one thing it was widely reported that Saddam donated US$25,000 to each of the families of the al Qa’eda 911 suicide pilots. Chances are that he’s providing other funding, and why wouldn’t he? He must be pretty pissed off with the sanctions against him and wants to hurt the US in any way that he can after what happened in 1991.
The big mistake was not finishing the job in 1991. Pop Bush was forced to stop the Gulf war by UN mandate. The Bush family does not like the UN; in his biography, Pop Bush describes the UN as “another light that failed”.
People who say that Saddam “is not a threat to world peace” are forgetting that he is already in breach of what – 33 out of 37 UN resolutions? He kicked out the weapons inspectors in 1998 and has been playing cat and mouse with the UN/US ever since the Gulf War ended. Forget about oil, and forget about 911 – the US is justified in taking action because of the UN Resolution breach alone. We forget this because the war was a long time ago, and fell out of the news.
After 911, Dubya declared war on terror – not just al Qa’eda. And let’s not forget the scale of the atrocity committed against the world – which just happened to be in the US, but could have been another plane flying through one of the clock faces of Big Ben in London. Indeed, a cell was discovered trying to hijack a British plane on that day, but was thwarted because of closure of the airspace. Dubya always maintained that his declaration of war was not just against the Taliban, but against any other terror threats. Given that Saddam has provided funding to al Qa’eda, and has imported equipment needed for building nuclear weapons, he deserves what he’s about to get. Oh yes! Saddam bought nuclear centrifuges for refinement of plutonium to 70% purity. A nuke reactor needs fuel at only 3% purity, so when he says it was for reactors, we know he’s talking bollocks.
Let’s also not forget that
deterrence works. Remember how the people of some Islamic states were dancing in the streets after 911? Remember how Pakistanis were naming their new born sons Osama to honour their new hero? Remember the riots when the US decided to act against the Taliban in Afghanistan? That all stopped when swift US military action in Afghanistan achieved in three weeks what the Russians had failed to do in ten years, and the Taliban was all but destroyed. There was no dancing in the streets of Islamabad that day – lol.
By attacking Saddam, the US will be enforcing
existing UN resolutions after years of neglect during the Clinton presidency. Any funding to al Qa’eda or any other terrorist group will be cut off. Better a small war now, than a big war later and the chance of more and greater atrocities before we have that bigger war.
Well, that’s the long version, and it’s only my opinion. Here’s the short version of why we should topple Saddam: The guy’s a c**t.
