UK & US vs. Iraq: Changing Minds

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Society
February 16th, 2003 • 5:55 am

Mr. Blair & Co. are going to have to make up their minds. You cannot say that you are advocating such course of action because of Reason X, and then, when the evidence supporting Reason X turns out to be inconclusive, say that you actually meant Reason Y rather than Reason X. You cannot say you want X, and then when it looks like you are going to get X, say that you actually want Y.

Do you want to disarm Saddam Hussein, or do you want to get rid of him?

Do you want to do so because of links between the Iraqi regime and Al-Quaeda, or because of “moral” reasons — because the Iraqi regime is evil, no matter what its links to other manifestations of evil are (or are not)?

How do they expect to convince anyone if they keep changing their own story?

I have little doubt that Saddam Hussein and his regime are intrinsically evil and should be eliminated for the well-being of Iraq and the world. I am much less convinced of any links to Al-Quaeda or any immediate threat to the Occidental world that would warrant action against Iraq before, say, action against Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Yemen, North Korea, or a myriad of other scary and potentially dangerous regimes. I am also far from convinced that engaging in a war that will inevitably cause heavy civilian casualties would be better than, say, simply sending a special commando to Iraq for the single purpose of eliminating Saddam Hussein himself.

There might be valid “moral” justifications for this war. But they would sound much more convincing if they weren’t made up on the spot when other arguments turn out to be unsupported by evidence.


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