{"id":2945,"date":"2002-08-30T13:16:32","date_gmt":"2002-08-30T18:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2945"},"modified":"2002-08-30T13:16:32","modified_gmt":"2002-08-30T18:16:32","slug":"iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/08\/30\/iraq.html","title":{"rendered":"Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATE<\/u>: Blogatelle <\/a>says nice things about this post, and much of the debate continues over there in the comment section.<\/i><\/p>\n

I’ve not commented much on the impending war on Iraq. Plenty of others have, pro and con, and there have been other, less aggravating topics for me to write about. <\/p>\n

Well, with an intro like that, y’gotta figure what’s coming.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One thing that most folks agree with is that Saddam Hussein is a tyrannical murderer (or a murderous tyrant, take your pick). He’s invaded his neighbors. He’s used chemical weapons, both on his own population and on others. <\/p>\n

I wouldn’t call him Hitler-like, since that’s both cliche and I frankly think he’s less nuts than Hitler. But Stalin — yeah, there are plenty of similarities there, only on a smaller scale (perforce because he’s had a smaller country to work on).<\/p>\n

But very few people, should he suddenly suffer a brain aneurism, would shed many tears. The problem is, does that justify going to war on him and his country?<\/p>\n

In some ways, it’s easier to look at the objections before looking at the positive reasons to do so. So that’s what I’ll do.<\/p>\n

Bush is just doing this for reasons X, Y and Z.<\/i><\/b> This is the most common complaint I hear. It’s to distract from the economy, or from his business cronies’ misdealings. It’s a way to rally the country behind the GOP. For a while it was to try to avenge his father’s failure to get Saddam the first time; then, abruptly, the armchair shrinks changed it to trying to show up his father. Whatever. <\/p>\n

Fact is, though, it makes little difference. The justice or need to go after Iraq is independent of ulterior motives. You can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and the wrong thing for the right reasons.<\/p>\n

And if you believe in democracy, and you think Dubya’s job as President is that miserable, then you’ve got two years to wait to dump the cluck. And only a few months to vote in a Congress that will oppose him on all those domestic issues.<\/p>\n

Saddam is only a problem because of the US.<\/b><\/i> Certainly our record in supporting Saddam in the 70s, even to the alleged point of standing by when we knew he was going to use chemical weapons, is to our shame. The realpolitik <\/i>of supporting bad guys in order to keep worse guys in line is a dubious tactic that usually comes back to haunt one. The history of the US and Afghanistan stands as an other recent example of that.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, it’s irrelevant to this debate. Indeed, you could just as easily (and falsely) use it to argue that if Saddam is a problem because of us, then it’s our responsibility to the world to get rid of him. <\/p>\n

Everyone stands against us in doing this.<\/b><\/i> Certainly we need to consider what our allies (and rivals and enemies) think about what we’re doing. Nonetheless, in our own personal lives there are times when we each feel we need to follow a particular course of action, even knowing that our friends disagree with it. Our foreign policy should be influenced by our allies, but it cannot be dictated by it.<\/p>\n

For what it’s worth, there’s some question as to how sincere those objections really are. A number of objecting countries are acting as much out of their self-interest as the US is accused of. Others seem to be objecting on the outside more for domestic consumption than out of any serious moral outrage.<\/p>\n

We’re persecuting Islam.<\/b><\/i> Saddam, who’s domestically pursued a strongly (and brutally) secular course, has to be struggling not to laugh to be portrayed as a defender of Islam. He fulfills that role only to the extent that he’s been more than willing to fund and supply radical Islamic militants and terrorists, which he’s done for purposes of political gain, not for any religious reasons.<\/p>\n

Will the Islamic world see an attack on Iraq as a further assault on Islam by the US? Probably. Should we take that into account? Certainly, but, again, it cannot be the deciding factor — and if we play our cards right in trumpeting again and again how Saddam has been more than willing to kill, torture, bomb and gas his fellow Muslims, we can at least mitigate that perception to some degree.<\/p>\n

The US military is against it.<\/b><\/i> It’s ironic that the anti-war movement has shifted, since Nam, from claiming that the military are warmongers that need to be strongly reined in by the People, to claiming that the military are the ones who should be listened to when it comes to evaluating a potential conflict.<\/p>\n

There were plenty in the military who objected to the original Gulf War, and to Aftghanistan, and to our intervention in the Balkans, who saw all of those conflicts as potential quagmires that would turn into bloodbaths, both of civilians and of US troops.<\/p>\n

The opinions of the Joint Chiefs and the Pentagon certainly should be weighed. But they cannot be the only voices heard.<\/p>\n

Congress needs to weigh in on the matter.<\/b><\/i> There’s a long-time conflict between what the President, as Commander-in-Chief, can do militarily, vs. what the Congress, with the power to declare war, can do to restrain the President. It’s a tension between Article II, Section 2, and Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Should the President get approval from Congress before going to war against Iraq? Probably, as a political need, but by law he can send in the troops for 60 days before he has to get actual legislative approval.<\/p>\n

There’s some thought that this has actually already been hashed out behind closed doors. Which sounds sinister, but is also something of a necessity if you think about what it would mean to pass a Declaration of War ahead of time as things currently stand.<\/p>\n

It’s not right to attack someone until you, yourself, are attacked.<\/b><\/i> That’s certainly a point, and is similarly a point of domestic law (if not international consensus). Still, it’s not as clear-cut as that. There are legitimate arguments that a war against Iraq would be a continuation of previous UN-supported actions. More importantly, there are legitimate, grave concerns over Saddam’s weapons programs — programs hampered to some degree by embargoes, but still (according to some sources) proceeding apace.<\/p>\n

Leaving aside whether Iraq has complicity in the events of 11 September (etc.) — an issue that remains hotly debated — the question remains, what would happen if Iraq became a nuclear power?<\/i> Saddam has demonstrated a willingness to go chemical. He’s fostered a strong bio-warfare capability. He’s certainly pursued nuclear weaponry. Once he has it, it’s too late. Anything he wants, at that point, is colored by the prospect of a mushroom cloud over Riyadh, or Tel Aviv, or wherever a container ship can travel, including New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans, or beyond. Even if you argue that he’d never actually do such a thing, he’ll have the threat. And Saddam’s willingness to use such threats — and follow through on them — is well known.<\/p>\n

We should pursue other courses.<\/b><\/i> Like what? Diplomacy? Tried that, failed. Trade embargoes? Tried that, and been accused of genocide. Saddam hasn’t lost any weight over the last decade, but plenty of people have been willing to lay the deaths of thousands of Iraqis on the doorstep of the US. <\/p>\n

Ignore him? Sure. If we ignore him, maybe he’ll just sit quietly in Baghdad and be a good world citizen. If we just smile and be nice to him, he’ll be nice, too.<\/p>\n

In some ways, this is the most important failure in the anti-war position — what do we do otherwise?<\/i><\/p>\n

And that’s where the addressing the criticisms becomes the positive reason for taking whatever means necessary, including war, against Iraq. There are very few who argue with a straight face that Saddam isn’t a threat, in the long- or mid-term, if not in the short-term. There are very few who don’t think that, if he doesn’t have an active nuclear development program now, that he won’t pursue one as soon as the hated embargo is lifted. There are very few who don’t think that a nuclear-armed Saddam will be a terrible danger, and one that will be exceedingly difficult to deal with then<\/i>.<\/p>\n

So what do we do? Wring our hands? Hope for the best? Pass firm resolutions to chastise Saddam if he steps out of line?<\/p>\n

Hope he dies before he nukes someone?<\/i><\/p>\n

I don’t look forward to war. I don’t believe there are a lot of other choices we can pursue at this point. Dammit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE: Blogatelle says nice things about this post, and much of the debate continues over there in the comment section. I’ve not commented much on the impending war on Iraq….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10403,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/26\/war_comparisons.html","url_meta":{"origin":2945,"position":0},"title":"War comparisons","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Jan-07 12:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Like the vast majority of Americans, I concur that the Iraq War has been horribly bumbled in its execution. 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