Quote:
Originally Posted by gldstwmn
Hate to sound like a broken record but you do know that 9/11 and Iraq have nothing to do with each other right? 
Also they were planning to get into Iraq well before 9/11. Supposedly it's what Cheney's secret energy meetings were about . . . . |
That is not exactly true. Yes, SH had no culpability in the 9/11 attacks. anyone who says he did is wrong.
But, the US' policy and the world's policy through the UN prior to 9/11 and prior to W was that SH was a terrorist sitting on a stockpile of WMD. It made sense then after the US was attacked to go after SH, along with Al-Q, because of the potential threat - the entire world agreed to this through the UN. W, however, could not stop at the newly ordered inspections in Iraq. So, he invaded Iraq. If W had succeeded in the invasion and all had gone well, which the events during and after the first Iraq war suggested would be the case, then W's anxious invasion would have been overlooked by the vast majority of the world. Again, much if not all of the Arab world had been chomping at the bit to oust SH and this was their vehicle to do so without blood on their own hands. Things did not go well however; so, W is hated.
I suppose it all boils down to the war on terror and what that is. Surely SH according to unanimous world opinion via the UN fit the definition of a terrorist and a player in the war on terror. So, would it have been enough not to do anything in Iraq after 9/11 and, thus, ignore all of the prior 10 + years of killing in the name of ridding the world of the threat of SH? I suppose that is a conclusion we may all differ on.
Personally, I take Pres. Clinton's view of the inspections should have been allowed to conclude. Any subsequent military action should have been based on the results. That position solidly supports that the events of 9/11 effected how the world viewed Iraq and SH's refusal to cooperate in the hunt for the WMD. Thus, 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq are related even though SH was not responsible for bombing the US on 9/11.