Why Iraq? Hint: It's NOT Only About WMD's

[Annie]

It's been two years, perhaps for our present college friends, who may have been in high school when all these events were taking place, a recap is in order.

I'm still sorry Steven den Beste chose to stop writing his essays, but they are the best primer around to explain things. First read this, (if you are a voracious reader, you've come to the right place). Before you jump on my excerpts, show a conservative how liberals really do open their minds to other points of view, then dismantle them logically.

http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2003/07/Microscopicview.shtml

Intro and there will be lots of links:

The new refrain is

"Bush lied about the reason for attacking Iraq. He claimed that Iraq tried to purchase Uranium from Africa, and that wasn't true."​

Therefore... only they don't proceed with the "therefore" because their unspoken therefore is

"therefore we shouldn't have attacked Iraq; we should have pursued other approaches and left Saddam in power."​

And they don't want to formally say that, since Saddam was a monster and the people of Iraq are incalculably better off now without him. But those making these arguments don't care about the plight of the people of Iraq, or indeed the plight of impoverished people anywhere else, except in very abstract terms. The dirty little secret of those on the far left making these arguments is that for all their claims of compassion for the downtrodden of the world, they are primarily motivated by hatred of Western culture, especially as manifested in the United States, rather than by love of the people of the rest of the world.

Which is why they don't like to talk about how awful it actually was in Iraq before we invaded, because they argued at the time, and implicitly are arguing now, that the status quo there should have been maintained....

after finishing with that, check this out, where again you can spend a long afternoon on links alone:

http://denbeste.nu/essays/strategic_overview.shtml

Here's a section I think interesting, but you may find your own:

II. Why is the US fighting the war? Why were we attacked?

1. American success casts Arab/Islamic failure in sharp contrast. Politically, economically, militarily, technologically and culturally we set the standard and our accomplishments make their failure look particularly bad.

2. America is the largest and most important supporter of Israel. Arab leaders have used Israel as a scapegoat for their own failure, and part of that is to blame us since we refuse to abandon Israel. They have provided enough support to the Palestinians to keep the struggle going, so that their own people have someone outside to hate, which is why Israel is top of their shitlist. But that also causes them to hate us for our support of Israel.

3. America is secular. Islamic religious zealots have been preaching that much of Arab/Islamic failure happens because Muslims have not been sufficiently devout. Allah has not been fighting on their side because they were sinners who have turned away from the teachings of the Prophet and a true virtuous life. The zealots claimed that only by embracing extreme forms of Islam could they again gain Allah's favor and begin to succeed. But the US government and the American people do not follow those teachings, and America is a success. At the same time, in the nations where the extremists took power things got even worse. American success is heresy. In religious terms the only explanation for that is that America is in league with Satan, and Khomeinei said as much.

4. American culture and American ideas are very popular with many of the people who live in the Arab/Islamic belt in question, particularly among their young people. This is viewed with alarm by traditionalists of all kinds. Their own people were being seduced away from their traditional culture and extreme religious practices.

5. America has earned a reputation in much of the world as being rich, well-armed, but also cowardly; full of bluster but having no guts. Such events as our defeat in Viet Nam, our experiences in Beirut and Somalia, our half-hearted and largely ineffectual responses to the attacks against us in the 1980's and 1990's, and many other episodes contributed to the impression that we would not fight back if attacked, and that there was little risk in in attacking us, whether rhetorically or even violently.

6. America is the "top dog" in the world right now, and there was prestige associated with attempting to take down the "top dog".

 

[Gabriella84]

He conveniently forgot oil and the personal hatred and retribution of one man by another.

 

[dilloduck]

He conveniently forgot oil and the personal hatred and retribution of one man by another.

and that makes a difference in how we should proceed from here?

 

[onedomino]

He conveniently forgot oil and the personal hatred and retribution of one man by another.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. America spends $300 billion to obtain (even if we got it all, which we do not) $20 billion in annual Iraqi oil exports. The oil argument is absurd. America rid the world of a mass murderer. G84 objects to that.