If Bush started the war to remove a despot then he should say that. He claimed that the war was about terrorism. It clearly was not. He started the war to end a regime and to build democracy in Iraq.
He was just using satire. He said the opposite of what was true (not terrorist, democratic virtue) and followed it up with the wacky :whacky: face.
It was not the center of terrorism before the war.
I am so sad. I was in the Army Intelligence Agency and I volunteered for the first gulf war. Had it not been for my age 41, being just a little bit on the fat side and my wife’s admonition I would be in this one.
I don’t think you have a clue what the Bush administration said about the reasons for the war (as is evident, for example, by the fact you contradict yourself in the quoted section above). But, to recap them here one more time just for you, the rationales for Operation Iraqi Freedom were as follows:
Terrorism was already thriving in Iraq. Hussein ran terrorist training camps, including one just outside Baghdad that taught (drumroll, please) how to hi-jack airplanes using box cutters, the exact technique used by the 9/11 terrorists. What the U.S. and her allies have done is driven these terrorists above ground so that they can be more easily captured or killed.
They are also coming out of the woodwork!
SHEMP said:
I want to say I believe our Holy Father, the Pope, is a forthright individual who says what he means and means what he says. As I search for the Holy Father’s condemnation of our action in the Gulf War I can not find one. I can find in the emanations and the penumbra illusions to the Pope not approving of the war. Our Pope says what he means and means what he says, if he said the war is unjust, where did he say, when did he say it and what did he say?
I disagree. The Constitution specifically gives Congress the sole right to declare war. Even though Congress did support the Iraq war by funding it, never did it make a declaration of war. In my opinion, Congress abdicated its responsibility by neither delcaring war nor refusing to fund it. Such a move played well into the hands of Congressional politicians who could truthfully say they were both for and against the war.
Why is it that people who want to object against Operation Iraqi Freedom almost consistently fail to be honest. Your “meager technicality” is false. Congress did authorize the use of force against Iraq. A formal declaration of war was unnecessary because we never stopped being at war with Iraq from the time of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Very true. It is also worth noting (again) that the declaration of war on terrorism after 9/11 gave the president the authority to go after terrorist and those who harbor and fund them. Saddam funded them, by his own televised admission, and his promises to continue to do so. We made it very clear after 9/11 that we would draw no distinction between those who commit terror and those who fund terror, and Saddam responded by increasing his terrorist payout to families by $15,000.
I do not deny that Congress authorized the use of force in Iraq. But I do hold that no formal declaration of war against that country was made. Compare the “Be it resolved” section of the resolution you linked with that of the World War II declaration of war.
You claim that the Gulf War never ended and that a new declaration of war is unnecessary. I can accept this if Congress formally declared war against Iraq back in the early 90s and never ended the war. I would be interested in a link to the Gulf War war declaration if you could provide one. Thanks and God bless.
He obviously (maybe in retrospect) did not pose as great a threat to the U.S. as other threats. The terror threat in Iraq today is obviously greater than it was when Hussain was in power. This war has increased the hatred against the U.S. If I was a terrorist I think that this war would be great for recruiting. I fear that these “pockets” of resistence will continue to sprout up above and below ground.
I appreciate and respect your response. There is nothing wrong with changing your mind–that shows you think for yourself and can see both sides. In retrospect, Bush may not have want to war with Iraq, but that is part of the difficulty of being a leader–he can’t go back and change his mind later. He had to act based on what was known then. His “opponents” in congress can say he shouldn’t have and blame him, but they can’t go back and erase their “yes” vote either.
With prayer anything is possible. In this case it will take a miracle!
Then you have no grounds for your complaints the President waged an illicit war.