Quote:
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Originally Posted by Rippley
Ok, I saw this discussion on another board. Well, a mailing list I'm on. And I thought I'd throw it to the intellectual sharks of the TFP:
So, against all predictions, the Iraqi elections had
very high turn-out with little violence and no
accusations of foul play. US troops kept themselves
out of sight, Arab news channels gave positive and
optimistic coverage and in general everyone seems
pleasently surprised at how well the whole thing
went.
Bush claimed that democracy in Iraq would make the
invasion worthwhile. Does this prove him right? Is
there merit to his "domino theory" of democracy in
the Middle East? Was this worth 15,000 lives? (not a
rhetorical question).
Was the anti-war movement wrong?
I'll kick off the discussion with another question: DOes it really matter? Is the point of the exercise to have a side in the global debate that's right, or to supprt that Iraqi people in their choice? This guy Says it far better than I. Hope you have BugMeNot or an NYTimes subscription... |
No it does not prove him right by a long shot. First of all, Bush had us go to Iraq because he "thought" (due to the intelligence he received) Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. So no on that issue, the end doesn't justify the means.
Second, a big no. The middle east is not going to say, "Oh, Iraq held elections and it looked pretty good. Let's go democratic.". We don't even know if Iraq will stay democratic (hopefully it will work and no coup occurs). The middle east is not a democratic culture, they have their governments built upon their faith (though Iraq is but the U.S. intervened).
Third, big no. Again the ends don't justify the means. Our young soilders should not have been over because their was no real threat to us. No WMDs.
Fourth, big ass NO!! We have a democratic society (exactly what were trying to build in Iraq) and we should be able to express ourselves. Especially for a war that was without merit. I don't want anyone to think I am against our soilders achieving the objective, because I feel they are to be praised greatly for sacrificing their lives for us. But it was the wrong war for them to have to do this.
Fifth, we should be on the side of the Iraqi people to achieve a democratic government. We don't need another Saddam in that region. But we need to make sure they are ready to do it on their own by the end of the year. If we stay to long resentment may grow.
Overall, yes I'm against the war and the way Bush has handled it. But I do want it to be a success just for the simple fact that the middle east may have some stabilty in the region.