I have been against the War in Iraq since before the publicized "original" conception. I was, however, not the slightest surprised when President Bush decided to invade. I am $50 richer because I bet my husband in 2001, shortly after his inauguration, that George W. Bush would figure out a way to get the US into Iraq.
When the bombs hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon everyone wanted,even needed a scapegoat at that time - someone to blame.
It was obviously not politically practical to actually go after the country who actually 'grew' the terrorists - Saudi Arabia because they are our "friends". After all everyone knows how dependent we are on Arabian oil. Besides they might actually fight back. So the training grounds in Afghanistan were chosen. This made some sense to me. However settling for the terrorists training camps was simply not enough for our President. This was just not GRAND enough.
IMHO, President Bush wanted\ maybe even felt politically, that he had to find a country with just enough political problems to try to justify our invasion so we (he) would and could show our might, power, and strength to the world - even though it really wasn't necessary.
Had the bombings actually brought us to our knees, then and only then, (maybe) should we have become the aggressor. However the bombings did no such thing. Instead they brought our country together. This unity was ignored (or possibly simply went over) our President's head. He didn't care whether the chosen country hadn't actually been aggressive toward the US recently - if ever.
I know... Kuwait - but that still had little to do with actually attacking the US. Actually I truly believe Bush just plain wanted to invade Iraq, if for no other reason than pride. Because of the attempted assignation on his father's (George H.Bush) life, the younger Bush may have felt the need to show his father, and the rest of the world how he would not be out done by his old man. IMHO, G.W.Bush did not want to be compared to his father as a president and come up lacking. A really GOOD war would enhance his place in American History, and he would come out on top when compared to his father. Do I believe that it is possible for one man to be so arrogant that he would drag an entire country into war just for his own aspirations? yes, obviously I do. It's been done before, Japan, with Tito,Germany with Hitler, and Napoleon in France. Why not today?
Once Iraq was settled on, all that needed to be done was to find reasons to attack. I remember well watching Colon Powell, whom I respected, (and frankly still do, especially since he apologized for being manipulated) showing the 'pictures' of the actual locations of the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
(I still want to know where the pictures came from, and just who decided they were
pictures of WMD).
I don't believe that Bush was personally or politically satisfied with the Taliban as his "Bad Guys". Afghanistan just wasn't very exciting and Bush wanted\needed to keep the momentum going so he could invade Iraq - with the blessings of the American people. This is where our President truly showed his keen ability. He managed to use the Media almost against itself. Like it or not, Bush was very effective in this task. By dropping hints and releasing tiny to tidbits of information to the media about Iraq, and keeping the issue of the bombings live and well, Bush manged to tie both issues together. The entire country was rived up into wanting to DO something, and if Iraq were really breaking International Laws, and potentially sending terrorists of here, well it deserved
our wrath. Not just our wrath of course, but the World's.
The only sticky problem that occurred was when the rest of the world chose to believe Blix's report that there were no WMD.
Oops!
Well, then obviously the rest of the world was just chicken - hence the bad rutation given to the French.
As the need to retaliate grew, stirred up wildly by the Bush Administration, and of course with Donald Rumsfeld's help, I was not surprised when the majority of Congress agreed with Bush and allowed him to get by with extreme funding, the Patriot Act, and basically sending our men to their death, what we now know was a lie by our own President.
Is it any wonder that the majority of Congress supported Bush when he
decided to get his revenge in Iraq and voted for the Patriot Act? I do not really blame any of the Republicans or Democrats for voting in favor of the war. According to the information made available to the public, had our elected officials not voted to follow the President into Iraq, I would imagine the majority of them would have
been considered traitors or even worse by their constituents. Even if a few of did know the truth, or suspected the truth behind Bush's decision to invade Iraq, they were still had little choice.
If one remembers correctly, back to the time of the our initial invasion of Iraq, the entire country was still looking for someone to blame for the WTC and Pentagon
bombings. All one has to do is realize how quickly many of the American public
came to associate Iraq with terrorism. There are many today who still believe
we are in Iraq because they sent the terrorists over here.
Frankly if any one of the candidates, be they Democrat or Republican, were to stand up and state, "I was wrong, I goofed, and I am sorry for my original vote of support for Iraq, "I believe I would have to definitely consider casting my vote in their direction. Today I am more concerned with those who voted to uphold the Patriot Act. Since I believe that a great deal of the Act is unconstitutional,the candidates that supported it most recently will find it very hard to earn my support.
My point is actually very simple. We, as American citizens, have an important decision to make. To allow Bush to continue pushing our country around, and pushing around our elected officials, or demand our elected officials to stand up and do something to stop him. Personally I favor impeachment, with a heavy prison sentence for he and his supporters in office,- i.e. Bush and our illustrious past Secretary of War ( I know, I know, he wasn't technically the Secretary of War, but State, but might as well had been,) Donald Rumsfeld, and Vice President Cheney. I could actually see a case made for premeditated murder.
If someone doesn't stop him, well I would be willing to bet my husband another $50 that we will be in Iran before Bush leaves office.
Besides,not only has our President taken us to war,illegally, or at the very least unethically and immorally, he managed to undo the unity that for a while brought this country together. Sometimes, I'm not sure which was worse.
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