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• Thursday, December 4, 2008 09:41 AM

  @Mark Denney

  Mark Denney: "I think you're applying a very single minded and obtuse approach to military action and the reasons for going to war."

  I think you don't know what you're talking about.

  Mark Denney: "The reasons to not apply the same logic for one country as opposed to another are many and have more to do with logistics, troop safety, estimates for success, etc than the simple moral decision to act."

  Uh-huh. So basically "We want to rid the world of evil dictators, but only if they're in regions that are logistically feasible," right?

  Sorry, but my point is that the entire rationale is empty. It's all well and good to claim you're invading for humanitarian reasons when, oh by the way, it just so happens that controlling the country will also serve your self interests.

  Note that you listed "estimates for success" among the considerations. How well did Bush estimate success? That's part of the reason I am criticizing him. He had no idea what he was doing. He didn't even know the difference between Sunni and Shia, let alone give any thought to what might happen in the event of Iraq's government breakdown in the aftermath of an invasion.

  Mark Denney: "Imagine your reaction when 50,000 troops laid dead in NK "well, at least we applied our morals evenly!". You should look at each situation as just that - a single situation that needs to be dealt with on it's own merits and circumstances."

  Uh huh. I am not arguing that we should have invaded North Korea. I am arguing that it's B.S. to CLAIM you're waging war for humanitarian reasons when you don't lift a single finger to do a single humanitarian thing anywhere else in the entire world.

  And it's especially hypocriticial to say you have humanitarian interests in mind when you've sent a message down every chain of command that says it's A-OK to torture people.

  Mark Denney: "Bush is no hero but he was President during the single worst invasion and tragedy our country has faced."

  You are right, Bush is no hero.

  Mark Denney: "To say "well, he said he was against nation building when he ran for office!" is anemic..."

  There's no iron in my red blood cells? Huh? And what is your argument here, that 9/11 had a bearing on policy toward Iraq? How exactly? We invaded Iraq to prevent terrorism by a loose faction of well-funded Islamic militants in other countries? This makes little sense. Invading Iraq was not a response to 9/11, Operation Enduring Freedom was. Even the stated goal of spreading democracy doesn't address what happened on 9/11 because there's no indication 9/11 had anything to do with democracy vs. dictatorship.

  Mark Denney: "I am no fan of Bush. I think he did many if not most things wrong or against my own views. I don't come to my current views on the war without first feeling it was wrong top to bottom. But, I had to ask myself if I thought us NOT intervening in Rawanda was wrong. I think it was. I also think we did the right thing by acting to stop the Bosnian conflict."

  I agree, I think we should have done much more about Rwanda. But we didn't. Nor has Bush done much about Sudan. We know Saddam Hussein killed thousands of people many years ago, but here's something that happened on Bush's watch, and he did nothing. What does that tell you? It tells me that the stated motive of ridding the world of genocide and dictatorship was a disingenuous justification.

  Mark Denney: "Given those two items, I have to ask myself - should we have acted in Iraq - I think yes. Should we have acted in NK, I think yes but, not the same way we did in Iraq. I think our actions so far in NK have (now, thankfully) resulted in progress. Different situations, different actions but, to me, both right."

  So you think it was right to invade Iraq with no plan for a successful occupation and with no guidance in terms of how our troops interacted with citizens?

  Do you really believe Bush and his administration cared at all about the Iraqis? Because if you really believe that, the burden is on you to explain why they maintained a policy in which Iraqis were routinely beaten and humiliated.

  —Xrandadu Hutman Read Xrandadu Hutman's other letters
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