My thoughts on Iraq

Okay, so some might not agree with my rather simplistic approach to supporting US involvement in Iraq, but I view it the same way as involvement in Kosovo and others. The simplistic analogy I make is what would you do if you had a neighbor that was obviously beating their spouse? Do you report them to the police and risk getting involved? The beaten spouse might, usually from fear or a twisted sense of love, not press charges and return and the beating spouse comes after you for causing trouble. Or do you do nothing until one goes out in a body bag and the other in handcuffs?

I guess whether there were WMD's or not is not the question. Saddam was biding his time for the sanctions to be lifted and put his plants back in production. However, to me that is irrelevant. He, his family, and henchmen were routinely beating torturing and killing people in their country. So the question is how long do you wait until you are sure that there is no other option? What level of involvement do you give to oust a dictator that doesn't care about anything, but his own personal pleasure and is willing to gas his own people. Some claimed that the Shi'as or the Kurds should have rebelled, but both tried at one time or another. Right after the Persian Gulf war, of which I am a veteran, the shi'as were encouraged to rebel, only to not get any support from US and they got cut down. The Kurds would think about it and they got gassed. So the spouse would try to stand firm over being beaten only to be cowed in fear from the stronger spouse.

While I wasn't a real supporter of Clinton, I was a supporter of his involvement in Kosovo. One of the few things that I thought he showed some fortitude to do what was right instead of what was politically expedient. Any of the Republicans who think that was a misadventure and supports Iraq are just as hypocritical as Democrats that supported Kosovo and didn't or don't support Iraq, at least in my view.

Now, with all of that said, I think that the Bush administration underestimated and did not prepare the country for what could happen. So we have ended up being the policeman who is dealing with the abusing spouse's drinking buddies after the fact.

Now I said that the analogy was rather simplistic, but it all comes down to, at least in my mind, loving your neighbor as yourself. If you are being beaten down with little way to control what is happening to you, wouldn't you want someone to get involved? There are some Iraqis that actually do appreciate us being there. So those are my thoughts.