Originally posted by bamthin
I think to, to some Americans, the lack of WMD or clear Bin Laden/Al-Queda >> Saddam links are of no consequence after the fact. These people would have sent their own sons/daughters to Iraq to be killed to remove Saddam for humanitarian reasons alone.
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That is about the most ludicrous statement I have ever heard. First, of all parents don't send their kids to war, the gov't does. Second, even if they could do you honestly think those parents believe their children were sent there to be killed? Finally, don't you think removeing Saddam for humanitarian reasons is more honorable than on the basis of WMD.
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But you need to expand your view a little and consider the people that really needed more than just Saddam's human rights record as a reason to lose their life or their loved one's life. Many nations are in breach of UN resolutions. There are many tyrants in the world who torture and murder anyone who rises up against them. People needed to have other reasons to believe a full scale military incursion was required.
After the dust of Iraq settled and the proof they were expecting to see, the stockpiles of recently produced WMD and the definitive evidence that Saddam was coordinating his efforts with Al-Queda to bring death and destruction to the US mainland, did not materialize, the anger and mistrust begin to well, like bile in the throat, of the "other" Americans. These are the Americans who despise war. They know how brutal it is and how much pain and suffering it brings to innocent people. They have a conscience about it. They know that it is their tax dollars that are littering Iraq with unexploded cluster weapons, that will kill and and dismember innocent children. It is their tax dollars spreading depleted uranium all over Iraqi neighborhoods, where children will play someday.
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And that justifies having to live in fear and without freedom while we ifinitatley negotiate and make resolutions so you can sleep at night w/o any blood on your hands. While Saddam continues to silence those who disagree w/ in which case the blood realy would be on your hands. Meanwhile the innocent Iraqi's still don't have there freedom, but at least their alive, right? A wiser man than I once said a life w/o freedom isn't a life at all.
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This large group of people are waiting patiently for the proof that what they were told was the truth and that all the sacrifices that were made were worth it. Removing a dictator is not enough for them.
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I find this statement a little disconcerting. I always thougt human rights violations was all it took for liberal and that it was at the top of their list when it came to reasons for US intervention. You seem to be placing it at the bottom.
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Perhaps, if Bush just came out and reminded the people of Saddam's human rights record before the war and did not put so much emphasis on WMD and Al-Queda links, these people may have been swayed. In this scenario, they would have the full reasons with no deception and could then weigh the options. But Bush chose to focus on the WMD and Al-Queda connections to whip up support from the squeamish.
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Considerable attention was given to is HR violations, yet are wonderful media chose to focus on the WMD case.
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This is manipulation and exploitation in the highest order. These people were deceived and they are not happy about it. In their mind, Saddam was a neutered leader crippled by a decade of sanctions.
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They would be wrong. Whether or not intel on WMD was accurate, Bush believed it to be accurate and acted on it.
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Saddam was being inspected again and no threat to the US.
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I thought just being a threat to Iraq was enough.
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They trusted Bush that there was much more going on in Iraq than what common sense and common knowledge told them. They TRUSTED Bush to do the right thing and prove he was right later.
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Why did there have to be more than what we already know in the way of Human rights violations for these people you speak of to accept that Saddam needed to be removed from power. Bush did do the right thing and has proved it because many Iraqi's no longer have to live in fear.
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