Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Washington Post op-ed, If We Must Fight . . ., is worth reading. Basically he lays out the steps that must occur for us to justifiably go to war with Iraq. I’m not a big Brzezinski fan, but I think that he lays things out pretty well here. I’m extremely uncomfortable with our preparations for war with Iraq, for any number of reasons. The most basic is that I don’t think that our reasoning for war is sound, that our preparations are adequate, or that our expectations are realistic. The Iraq hawks are cozying up to a bunch of Iraqi exiles who aren’t what we’d likely refer to as the sons of liberty. I personally don’t believe at all that they’re going to work tirelessly to make democratic reforms in Iraq, nor do I necessarily believe that Iraq is ready for democracy. Furthermore, I don’t believe that Iraq has the worst government in the world (although it might). Finally, it seems obvious to me that Saddam Hussein is quite interested in self preservation. I may be a fool, but I don’t believe that Saddam Hussein would use weapons of mass destruction against the United States or Israel without provocation. If he were suicidal, he’d already be dead.
I could be wrong about every one of these things, but it’s up to someone to make the case. The case has not yet been made.
Provocation
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s Washington Post op-ed, If We Must Fight . . ., is worth reading. Basically he lays out the steps that must occur for us to justifiably go to war with Iraq. I’m not a big Brzezinski fan, but I think that he lays things out pretty well here. I’m extremely uncomfortable with our preparations for war with Iraq, for any number of reasons. The most basic is that I don’t think that our reasoning for war is sound, that our preparations are adequate, or that our expectations are realistic. The Iraq hawks are cozying up to a bunch of Iraqi exiles who aren’t what we’d likely refer to as the sons of liberty. I personally don’t believe at all that they’re going to work tirelessly to make democratic reforms in Iraq, nor do I necessarily believe that Iraq is ready for democracy. Furthermore, I don’t believe that Iraq has the worst government in the world (although it might). Finally, it seems obvious to me that Saddam Hussein is quite interested in self preservation. I may be a fool, but I don’t believe that Saddam Hussein would use weapons of mass destruction against the United States or Israel without provocation. If he were suicidal, he’d already be dead.
I could be wrong about every one of these things, but it’s up to someone to make the case. The case has not yet been made.
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