Funferal

Megnut on Iraq

megnut has a reasoned analysis showing how someone who could have been persuaded toward a legitimised attack has been alienated by the US government approach. There are a number of factors which could have been combined to build a widely accepted basis for an attack, but the stumbling nature of the drive toward war has undermined that.
I only have one quibble with the piece, relating to the claim that Iraq kicked out inspectors in the past. I’ve seen in several sources the statement that the inspectors were ordered out by the US prior to their bombing Iraq (in 1998 I believe). I noted that Bush’s speech, while referring to the inspectors being deceived over the years, made no reference to their being kicked out, which I am sure he would have mentioned if he could.
Which reminds me – looking at Bush’s speech again I saw something else that annoyed me about what he said. Let’s look at a quote:

Using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other.

Notice something? Beautiful linking of NBC weapons, terrorists, and Iraq – all in a conditional clause. It would be just as valid to say that:

Capturing anthrax spores and possibly even banned biological terror agents from US government laboratories, white supremacist killers could destroy the multi-cultural society we hold dear.