This got me out of bed last night/this morning when I heard it on the radio. I'm too hung over to write about this at length, and I'm lucky enough to have Winds of Change expertly doing it for me.
Great news. Really great news.
From a forum post I wrote today:
Although I'm a bit shaky on the rosey view I keep hearing about, (the world loved us pre-Bush? uhhh, ok. I guess they all forgot about the cold war) I have to say it's beside the point. We were attacked, multiple times, on our own soil no less, and the attacks were escalating in scope over time.
This didn't start with 9-11, it finished with it. We asked for help in defending ourselves, and we got a chance to see who our friends were. We already knew who our enemies were.
Are we there over oil? I think a better question is who isn't? Saddam sure liked Iraqi oil. France, Germany, Russia and China absolutely loved it, to the tune of billions of dollars worth of contracts. Even the wonderful UN liked it, sponsoring the Palaces-For-Oil program.
Here's a little wakeup call: the whole world runs on oil. Almost everything you enjoy in your life rests on the petroleum industry. We all need it.
But just because we need oil doesn't mean that's all we need. We also need security. So we went to Afghanistan to get Osama and his demented cult in their home base. We could have simply bombed it into an even more stone-age than it already is (is that possible?) but we didn't. We're still there even now. We're trying to work with a warlord dominated country that has been left a couple of centuries back in time and give it a shot at joining the civilized world.
Sure the oil in Iraq is a good thing for us. Let's not forget the other important party here - the Iraqis who are the ones getting the money from selling the oil to us. They sure as hell weren't getting it before.
So now we've smashed two tyrannical regimes. Someone here posted a snide comment about how we've supported these very regimes in the past. Well, how do you want it folks? You have two choices, as I see it. We either condone/support tyranny or we condemn/destroy it. Don't tell me that destroying it is bad in the same mouthful that you're telling me we should support or ignore it. Pick a side please and try to stick to it.
For my money, we're doing the right thing - and I'm damn pleased we liberated Iraq and caught Saddam. It's a win-win-win situation.
Posted by Matt at December 14, 2003 12:59 PMread more »
It's him. He's admitted it, his cabal has identified him, and we've DNA matched him. There also aren't many (zero) lookalikes that tote 750,000 dollars with them.
Also, since we're talking 8 months since the war -started- there is no point in bringing up the 2004 election. If we'd caught him in April, people would have said it was a publicity stunt anyway. So it goes.
Posted by: Matt at December 14, 2003 11:20 PMOk, but how do you know that it is really Saddam? Don't get to excited yet. The man has hundreds of doubles and look alikes, therefore there are hundreds of dental records and DNA results that 'match' Saddam's. Is this all a publicity stunt to assist Bush in reelection. Will we ever really know the truth? Wouldn't it be nice?
Posted by: Hope at December 14, 2003 10:54 PM