Politics: Military USA: Iraq War quite necessary, well justified, not ignoble, not a ruse

Evangelical Outpost. Joe Carter's stimulating and intelligent blog tackles "10 things we've forgotten about the Iraq War" (Mar20,2k7). This is a must read; there are some 80 replies from all over the poiitical spectrum, and more than enuff material to launch your own historiographical expedition into many facets of the origins and conduct of the War. But Joe's account is not in line with the doctrinaire voices of the anti-war Lefties, to be sure.

1. Most people have forgotten--or never knew--all the reasons we went to war. -- H.J.RES.114 is the Congressional resolution that authorized the President to use force to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein. Most Americans--probably including the 136 Congressional Representatives and 16 Senators who co-sponsored the resolution--have never bothered to read the text and instead parrot nonsense about "why we really went to war." This law, however, provides the complete list of justifications for why we went to war with Iraq. This law establishes the criteria that the American people--through their elected representatives--agreed were sufficient reasons for using force in Iraq. The list includes:

Continuing to possess and develop a significant chemical and biological weapons capability (false); actively seeking a nuclear weapons capability (true); supporting and harboring terrorist organizations (true); continuing to engage in brutal repression of its civilian population (true); refusing to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq (true); failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait (true); demonstrated its capability and willingness to use weapons of mass destruction against other nations and its own people (true); attempting in 1993 to assassinate former President Bush (true); firing on many thousands of occasions on United States and Coalition Armed Forces (true); harbored members of al-Qaeda (true); continues to aid and harbor other international terrorist organizations (true).

Critics of the war who deny or downplay these reasons for going to war are either ignorant or dishonest. They are either unaware of the real reasons provided to the American people by their legislature or do know and are intentionally being deceptive.

The above is verbatim the 1st of Joe's ten reasons why we've forgotten. I urge refWrite readers to click-up and engage with Joe's thinking in regard to the further 9 of his reasons. His blog-entry is a veritable manual for a thawtful beginner's education on why the USA continued the conflict in Iraq, that never stopped after what is now called the Gulf War I. The US in the north and the British in the south flew war planes over Iraq (except for the central section where Baghdad is situationed, and those planes were shot at almost daily by Saddam's defeated army on the ground (it couldn't get its own planes up). Bush, after 9/11, only escalated the armed conflict. The legalities of the Allies war against the genocidal regim of Iraq are impeccable. That factoid by no means resolves every issue, but it is important in any overall evaluation.