Read other letters about this article

• Thursday, August 10, 2006 11:02 AM

  Burden of Proof

  I propose that supporters of the Iraq War have the burden of proving how, exactly, a) that conflict is related to the "war on terror," and B) how it advances said war. I don't mean by spouting meaningless platitudes about how "staying on the offensive" since 9/11 has made us safer and how Saddam was supposedly, at some point in the future, going to supply WMD's to terrorists. I mean by offering specific ideas that refute the following:

  That the massive amounts of manpower, blood and treasure that have been, and continue to be, pissed away into desert sand wouldn't have been better spent finding Osama bin Laden, thoroughly eliminating the now-resurgent Taliban and re-building Afghanistan; how emboldening Iran and increasing its power by eliminating its greatest enemy and political counterweight makes the U.S. safer; how destabilizing a country by turning it into a chaotic shitstorm of sectarian violence doesn't create an environment that is hospitable for terrorist training and recruitment; how killing thousands of Iraqi civilians, directly or indirectly, is supposed to earn us goodwill in the Arab and Muslim world that can be used to gain allies in the war on terror; how the U.S.'s half-assed, corrupt, incomplete and incompetent reconstruction of Iraq is supposed to convince the Iraqi people that we actually give a shit about them and their country in the long-term.

  —Ares
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel