When you say the execution of the war was incompetent – compared to what?
Military deaths under Clinton were mostly not in combat, of course. But the number of deaths of active-duty military totaled 4621 in 1992-96, and 5187 in 2001-04. If the press wanted to report 3 more military deaths every day for 4 years under Clinton, they could have done so. Instead, they report present military fatalities today as they report Iraqi civilian deaths, without any sense of historical perspective.
I do wish Bush would lean more on Saudi Arabia. An invasion would have been a bad idea for several reasons: the Sauds had no history of WMD programs or UN resolution violations; their government had moderately more popular support than Saddam’s; there was no staging area from which we could invade Arabia; we have Muslims coming from other nations to fight ‘the crusader infidel’ as it is, and occupying Mecca wouldn’t help that; finally, while some Saudis support terrorism, alQuaeda is no friend of the monarchy, and has started to stage attacks in the kingdom. Those attacks are forcing the Saudi government to fight on ouur side for their own survival.
It’s not taken trillions – hundreds of billions, yes. I would like to help the people of Africa. I could ask you why you want to help Africans but not Arabs? The final reason all wars last as long as they do is ‘the enemy has a vote’. We have to keep fighting until they are convinced they must lose. I think if there were widespread reports that the terrorists thought they were losing and should give up, the morale in the US would be higher and we would be willing to fight longer. Likewise, I think the reports that many Americans want to give up embolden the terrorists. Frankly, I think if we had presented a united front the past three years, the terrorists would have realized they were doomed and retreated from Iraq by now, freeing the military for peacekeeping in Africa or the like.
What argument is there for intervening in Africa (save people suffering at hands of tyrants) that doesn’t also apply to Iraq? What argument against Iraq (they didn’t attack, no WMD, no American imperialism,etc) would not also apply to Africa?
If Bush’s father had done the right thing 16 years ago and abandoned the tyrants of the Arab League governments instead of the Iraqis who tried to rise up for their freedom, none of this would ever have happened – we would have deposed Saddam with more popular support at a time when he was weaker and definitely working on WMDs, giving the Arab world an extra generation to see a free government at work and demonstrating to Osama that we weren’t a paper tiger. Removing Saddam then would also have removed the need to station troops in Arabia, one of alQ’s chief grievances.
