FROM NOTACOMMIE

Hey Great Falls Jeff! I love a spirited debate.

Our current efforts are not working. The Mission is not accomplished. I can get you the sources if you want them, but they’re all over the news now, including, as I mentioned, Bush I’s former secretary of state and his secretary of defense and lots of other respected people now saying the war in Iraq has to be changed substantially and a shift must occur to diplomacy and statecraft. You marshall no evidence in opposition except to say that we need to finish the course. The occupation simply won’t work, as per much of the foreign policy-military-intelligence establishment. Many thought it would and now realize they were wrong and it didn’t work.

If people said it was a good idea to stab yourself in the foot before and now they say it’s a bad idea, does that make stabbing in your foot okay because darn it they ought to be consistent?

Also, Clinton actually cared vastly more about Al Quaeda than W. and warned W about it back in 2000. W and his staff ignored the possible problems until, essentially, 9/11. If you don’t believe me, I’ll get you sources. Also, this isn’t simply a matter of being misled–there are numerous accounts of Cheney and Rumsfeld looking for any chance to get into Iraq they could find, and they used 9/11 as a veritable gift from the Lord to get in. You can argue their motives were honorable–sharing democracy, etc, etc–but the point is, they wanted this war and looked for evidence to support it. I know this is a bold claim, but I think a lot of people accept it. If you don’t, I’ll find you evidence.

Speaking of evidence, you mention Syria had financial ties to Al Quaeda. Er, so did (and does) Saudi Arabia. Didn’t we invade Iraq?

As for WMD, you claim that WMD were found in Iraq–this is true before the embargo. Were the sort of WMD that justify this war (remember the mushroom cloud speech?) found after the embargo? I challenge you to find that proof. It’s not there.

I mean no disprespect to the soldiers in Iraq, nor to the innocent civilians trying to make their lives there. It’s not a matter of cutting and running, which, yes, is cowardly. It’s a matter of the most effective strategy. Of course, there are people that want to just forget about the people of Iraq and move on, and that would be terrible.

But then–what frustrates me most about a lot of folks who cry about the poor Iraqis–where are they about Darfur? About the Congo? About vast Chinese repression of human rights?