Letters to the Editor
Xanthro
Published Letters: 522 Editor's Choice: 47
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Iraq and Terrorism
[Read the article: Why we can't win the "war on terror"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We should never have attacked Iraq because it had nothing to do with international terrorism.
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That statement is false. Iraq and Saddam were a key factor in Islamic Terrorism, but not in the manner that Bush and company presented it.
Since the First Gulf War, the international community imposed sanctions on Iraq, and the United States had troops stationed in Saudi Arabia. These two issues were a huge driving force behind Islamic Terrorism directed at the United States.
The problem was how to resolve the issue. The sanctions ended up helping Saddam hold power, and were used for great propaganda affect to show how the U.S. killed thousands of Iraqi children every year. The sanctions didn’t actually kill these children but that doesn’t matter, it was presented and believed as fact by the vast majority of the Islamic World. Removing the sanctions wasn’t an option because then Saddam could simply restart his programs developing weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. troops were in Saudi Arabia in order to enforce no fly zones, and thwart Iraq intimidation of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. However, having “infidels” in the Holy Kingdom was the major al-Qaida recruiting tool. It was presented as colonization of the most holy of Islamic lands. Al-Qaida literature rarely mentioned Israel, but never failed to mentioned U.S. troops is Saudi Arabia. Again, the problem was how to resolve the issue. Simply leaving would allow Saddam to intimidate Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and thus a major supply of the World’s oil. Plus, then Saddam could rearm.
Saddam always claimed to have weapons of mass destruction, because part of his rule depended on the Middle East having the perception that such weapons were part of the Iraqi arsenal. Saddam quite simply outflanked the International community by stopping actual work on such weapons, but keeping the knowledge. Starting a chemical weapon lab is very easy if you still have the scientists available.
Before 9/11 Iraq was the key country in the World driving anti-U.S. Islamic terrorism, but it had nothing to do with Iraq itself participating in that terrorism. Iraq didn’t need to, it was in a long term winning diplomatic situation, because the status quo was untenable for the U.S.
Bush’s problem wasn’t in attacking Iraq; it was in having an administration that was as incompetent as humanely imaginable. The U.S. didn’t even secure known weapon sites, much less even make an effort to find the Iraqi scientists who once drove WMD design. This Administration did everything possible to make the U.S. less safe, and that’s what we are, less safe. While the previous status quo was untenable, the current status quo is a disaster.
That’s because we have an administration that doesn’t know what it’s doing, and not because Iraq “had nothing to do with international terrorism.”
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ID for purchases.
[Read the article: The GOP wants to see your I.D.]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"If it is an economic burden to show an ID card for identification to vote, then where is the similar outrage over people having to produce photo IDs or driver's license cards to cash checks or make credit card purchases in some areas?"
You don't have a Constitutional right to buy via check or Credit Card, and private individuals or enterprises may morally required burdens that the Government may not.
You could always pay cash, but there is no method to allow the excerise of a Constitutional right in the photo ID law.
Plus, again, how does this address absentee ballot fraud? Nobody answers this because it can't be answered.
"If you could use a voting card for the same purpose, that makes the argument of burden pretty shallow. And as far as absentee ballots go - a photcopy or fax of your card with the application (with a magic voting number to make it unique) would pretty much shut down the fraud angle - I mean the point of this is to have a unique number on your ID card that would identify YOU as a unique individual (and NOT a social security number)"
It's obvious you haven't worked much with government if you believe this will work. The IRS can't even keep SSN numbers matched with tax records, and somehow you believe we will have a nation wide ID number that will prohibit duplicate voting. It's laughable.
BTW, did you know law prevents the use of SSN other than for tracking tax information, but try enforcing that. Just what we need, two "unique" id numbers to determine who we are, so that we can prevent this none proved voter fraud at polls, while ignoring absentee ballot voter fraud.
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How to deal with Iraq.
[Read the article: Why we can't win the "war on terror"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]BTW - Very good points Xanthro, but do you think there could've been a better way to deal with Saddam other than invading, albeit poorly prepared?
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How to deal with Iraq was a exceedingly difficult question, and it's the main reason why Saddam wasn't removed during the first Gulf War.
The problem is that every avenue seemed to create as many problems as it solved. We haven't even talked about the Kurdish issue, which greatly complicates the Iraq issue as well.
Honestly, the best scenario seemed to be a quick invasion, followed by a massive rebuilding effort, and the removal of U.S. troops within six months. This could have been done, but Bush administration foolishness and frankly greed and stupidity have doomed Iraq. Certain aspects from military orders to how they went about installing telephone service told me the project was doomed. Second best scenario would have been to do nothing, though that was dangerous as well.
It's simply, this administration can't even rebuild New Orleans in a year, so how does anyone expect them to rebuild Iraq?