Originally posted by caltour:

This is an interesting point. I recall that the UK and Israel and a few other countries were vouching publicly for Bush's conclusion that Iraq was an imminent WMD threat. I have never given much credence to their public support, as each of them had powerful political reasons for doing so. Each of them wanted to: 1) cooperate with the U.S. and the UN in presenting a united front to Saddam, 2) curry favor with the world's only superpower, and 3) get in line for a slice of the war pie.



Sorry I don't buy this borderline conspiracy theory. The countries that supported the intel were the same ones who supported our actions there. Countries like France, Germany, etc that opposed us don't have the intel capability that U.S. and England (in particular) have.

Your point #1, that they wanted to present a united front against Saddam... What is wrong with that? That goes right on logically with them believing that he has WMDs. Hell, Iraq was a whole lot closer to these European countries than to us, they SHOULD be the ones that want actions against him.

#2) Being our #1 ally in most everything, I really don't think England needed to "win us over," as you say.

#3) Countries like France etc. that were so opposed to the war didn't know that they weren't going to get a "piece of the pie" until after the war was over and the bids for rebuilding began.

Quote:

Furthermore, we are talking about international politics here; we have no idea whether their "support" were based on solid evidence or on political strategy.



I guess if you want to continue to question every single thing that might show favor towards the "Bushmen," as you so disrespectfully refer to our president, you can go right ahead and twist everything to look in your favor. While I don't believe EVERYTHING for face value, I do think that there is some honesty even in politics.

You choose not to take their support at face value because it would bring discredit to your arguement. And on the flip side, I guess you can say I choose to believe it for my own reasons too.

Quote:


Sure, some countries supposedly "vouched" for Bush's conclusion about WMDs, and even joined his absurd little "coalition."



I don't know what is so absurd about it but like I said, Bush can't do a damn thing right in your mind, why should his coalition mean anything to you too right?

Quote:


The UK officially vouched for the WMDs and supported Bush's war. But the British memo shows that they may have privately believed that it was all bogus. Also, many members of the so-called "coalition of the willing" were anything but willing.



I thought that little memo was already disproved or shown to be not what it looked like or something?

Quote:

Ordinary spaniards, brits, poles, and italians opposed the war, even though their governments officially supported it.



Ordinary citizens are, for the most part, stupid and ill informed when it comes to politics. California is good proof of that. I take absolutly no creedance to what the citizens of these countries think. They had no access to the types of documents that their leaders that did support us had. Documents that couldn't and still can't be released due to security issues I am sure.

Quote:

Logically, if any country vouched for Bush's conclusions about WMDs, and then were against us going to war, doesn't that tell us something isn't right? Isn't is likely that country didn't really think there was an imminent WMD threat, and that they were just trying to cooperate with the US and the UN to present a united front against Saddam?



Which countries agreed with the intel but disagreed with the actions? Don't try and tell me anyone went along for the ride because the U.S. said so. France, Germany, Italy, etc etc etc. all were strongly against what we went and did.

I have no clue why they would not want us to go in and take out a brutal dictatorship. Even if the whole WMD case was not there at the time, there is still pleanty of reason to get rid of him.... Oh wait, I can answer this myself, can we say "Oil for food scandal."

If there is ANY country that you should be arguing had a poitcal interest in a particular decision on Iraq it should be France, our greatest anti-ally in the war.


Quote:

I don't know which specific evidence you mean. Please fill me in.



You brought up that you didn't believe some other countries evidence, I was asking you to show me what you have problems with?

"Moore has also accused the American people of being the stupidest, most naive people on the face of the Earth. And after last weekend, he's got the box office numbers to prove it!"