I bet some people wish the folks at Weekly Standard would just quit translating and publicizing those pesky documents. Here's a nice little rule to remember: when former KGB big dogs make a claim based on intel from the Third World,
be sure to listen.
3 comments:
Tom, with all due respect I just don't see why these documents matter. Perhaps they are genuine and they do reflect Hussein's real designs but then again who knows. I don't think we will ever know for sure. Most serious folks in the Democratic Party who backed the war embraced the views that Kenneth Pollack advanced--Hussein is very dangerous b/c he is irrational--so expect the unexpected. This was the best case for war in my view.
Maybe he backed terrorists and maybe he didn't--trying to prove that he did by using Iraqui documents is like building a car with legos--the building blocks are inherently unreliable. Everything about the Iraqui govt was inept (down to its documents). I don't doubt that Hussein probably would have liked to bomb London and kill Bush I and II, Clinton and the Backstreet Boys--who knows if he was serious about it---he probably didn't know either.
Right now, the legitimacy for the war does not hinge upon Hussein's threat level (which is the rationale behind the Weekly Standard's pubilcation of these documents---I assume) but whether Iraq will become another Beruit or not. It seems to me that the Right should forget about the reasons for the war (nobody cares) and concentrate on producing ideas and strategies for winning the war. If we win in Iraq---the fight over the rationale for going to war becomes moot.
Hussein wanted to kill the Backstreet Boys? There's your justification for war, right there. That S.O.B.!
Jeff,
Good points, all. The only thing I would add is that the publication and dissemination of those documents aren't for the serious people. Those documents are for the people who make the "we shouldn't be there in the first place" arguments. Whether we like it or not, those people have set the terms of the debate, and hurt American will to fight. Keeping Iraq from turning into another Beirut depends on us maintaining faith that Iraq is a good place to be fighting this war.
But between us grown-ups, you are absolutely correct: yeah, yeah we know Iraq is one of many places to fight this war, now let's get to winning it. I just wish right and left would work together on setting usable objectives, strategies, and tactics for winning. I, for one, would start with ensuring that the Backstreet Boys are safe and sound. I think that is something we can all agree on.
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