I’m confused Calliander. Are you saying that Hitchens is a shitty excuse for a liberal, or that I’m the equivalent of a racist for questioning your false accounting of events, or both? I suggest you read the actual speech Bush gave to the U.N. in September 2002 instead of bumper stickers; he clearly made a humanitarian case for liberating Iraq. You can find it here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912-1.html , and for the sake of convenience here are the closing paragraphs:
“Events can turn in one of two ways: If we fail to act in the face of danger, the people of Iraq will continue to live in brutal submission. The regime will have new power to bully and dominate and conquer its neighbors, condemning the Middle East to more years of bloodshed and fear. The regime will remain unstable — the region will remain unstable, with little hope of freedom, and isolated from the progress of our times. With every step the Iraqi regime takes toward gaining and deploying the most terrible weapons, our own options to confront that regime will narrow. And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September the 11th would be a prelude to far greater horrors.
If we meet our responsibilities, if we overcome this danger, we can arrive at a very different future. The people of Iraq can shake off their captivity. They can one day join a democratic Afghanistan and a democratic Palestine, inspiring reforms throughout the Muslim world. These nations can show by their example that honest government, and respect for women, and the great Islamic tradition of learning can triumph in the Middle East and beyond. And we will show that the promise of the United Nations can be fulfilled in our time.
Neither of these outcomes is certain. Both have been set before us. We must choose between a world of fear and a world of progress. We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather. We must stand up for our security, and for the permanent rights and the hopes of mankind. By heritage and by choice, the United States of America will make that stand. And, delegates to the United Nations, you have the power to make that stand, as well.
Thank you very much.”
The fact that we did a piss-poor job executing the war does not change the fact that the decision to remove Saddam Hussein’s regime was both correct and long overdue. If things stay on course, and we’re able to safely pull our troops out of a free Iraq in 2011, the long-term prospects for a lasting peace in that region skyrocket. Barack Obama said something that really jumped out at me early in the summer. It was (I’m paraphrasing): “We should not be blind to the opportunities that Iraq now presents us.” Obama kept Robert Gates as the Secretary of Defense today. How do you feel about that?