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I ask you..Why were Saudis flying planes into the twin towers? . SOUNDS like you blame OUR "flawed foriegn policy". We had it comming?? You know, militant Islam is on the attack in about 30 countries globally....Russia, Sudan, Indonesia, Phillipines. Maybe its something about THEIR Philosophy rather than ours??




Agreed. It is something with THEIR philosophy. The rise of Islamic Fundamentalism is the newest and biggest threat to our national security since the the end of the Cold War. I mentioned that in my first reply. And, in no way did I intend to suggest the US had it coming. I almost qualified that remark as I was typing it the first time. Maybe I should have.

I also take issue with the phrase WMD. Although I too use it, I think it is a propagandist phrase that came out of the Bush administration as a rational for war. What are WMD's?? It's an ambigous term. Does the US have WMD's? What are they. Now I'm not suggesting you are that stupid either but Iraq had every right to build and maintain arms under the terms of their cease fire from the first Gulf War. BUT, other than economic sanctions and enforcing the no fly zone, the US had no clear exit policy on Iraq. I guess we were just silently hoping that Saddam would fall victim of a coup d'etat. Remember, the reason the first George Bush left Saddam in power was because there was no one to fill the power vaccume. And, also, one of the reasons the US allied ourselves with Iraq prior to the Gulf War was because Saddam's government was secular and also despised radical Islamic Fundamemtalist. International politics are often complex and it is sometimes impossible to sort it all out but irrespective to all that, again, one more time, Iraq posed NO immenent threat to national security or to regional stability. Instead, we were economically crippling its people who were for the most part, detached from their government. Iraq served it's purpose in the international arena of chaotic actors---It acted as a check in the balance of powers in the region. Maintaining the status quo could not have been worse than rushing to war.

Back on the rational for Saudis flying planes into buildings---Again, it was a supreme act of terrorism and terrorists should be hunted down and killed but I do think the US underestimated the bad feelings the US was fostering in the Middle East while occuping Saudia Arabia. Most of is citizens resented the US presence there. True, the Saudi monarchy is an ally to the US but the monarchy is not in touch with the majority of its people. Again, we had no good exit policy on Iraq. And really, so what if Saddam devloped nuclear weapons. Israel across the sea had them too. We had the region covered. It's only when Iraq invaded Kuwait that the US got nervous. We had to protect our oil. And admittedly, we remembered the lessons of appeasment before WWII, especially since back then Iraq maintained the fourth largest standing army.

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But Scott Ritter was in a pretty distinct minoriy of global intell opinion on the subject. What proof did he provide that WMD were destroyed?




He was a prominent former weapons inspector--I think he was pretty credible, don't you?? Besides all that, I think we stopped short the weapons inspection by the Hansman to satisfy the international community and consequently there wasn't any coalition building either. Bush was planning the Iraq war back when we were in Afghanistan and he made it clear who his axis of really evil was. Moronic statements like that only make our enemies less secure and less willing to use diplomacy. Please, if you want to fight terrorists, fight terrorists. War is a last resort and even then is only supposed to be used as an extention to diplomacy.

Where I stand is clear. Bush has a credibility gap. I am mistrustful of people who mislead. I will vote for Kerry. I am not onboard with most of his parties agenda but I have to vote my conscience on this one.

Peace.

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