Reply #16: OK, I'll rebut...

[sfwriter]

Point by point:
1
"not terribly satisfied that Saddam remaining in power was a good idea."

No, Neither was I, though I agreed with George the first's reasoning. If we stayed, we'd end up tied down there for YEARS. It was an apt warning. Yet, after pulling out, George abandoned the Shia and Kurds to Saddam's forces. We even lifted the ban on his flying helicopters so he could go "kill his own people." An Iraqi revolution, by Iraqis, was our best chance at putting Saddam out of business.

Why did we help keep Saddam in power?

2
"UN resolutions continued to be largely ignored by the Saddam regime and evidence (good or bad) of WMD's continued to mount"

We now know that most of the "evidence" of WMDs came from exile groups like Chalabi's who wanted us to invade for their own reasons. The UN inspections, far from being ineffective, seem to have done the trick. (Backed up by a healthy fear of our military mind you.) This was what the inspectors were reporting all along. When they returned in 2002 they were given unprecedented access and gathered amazing data on Saddam's WMDs. Turns out that intelligence was correct.

Why did GW Bush suffer such a catastrophic failure in intelligence, the second of his presidency? (And don't go blaming it on Clinton. Bill had the good sense to keep his fist out of this hornet's nest.)

3
"do you have a link that shows that we have accessed/appropriated/utilized the Iraq oil fields for American profits?"

Here is a general article. I go into far more detail below.
http://www.targetoil.com/article.php?id=6">http://www.targetoil.com/article.php?id=6

The first thing we did was to declare the Iraqi contracts with Elf Aquitaine and Russia to be null and void, opening these fields up for American oil men and friends of the Bushes.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/20/eveningnews/main541379.shtml">http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/20/eveningnews/main541379.shtml

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A18841-2002Sep14¬Found=true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A18841-2002Sep14¬Found=true

When we were so desperate for allies in the run-up to war, why did we make enemies out of France and Russia? Was that the best thing for our troops?

This was all planned ahead of time in Dick Cheney's secret energy meetings, long before 9/11. That is the reason he won't release any info on them. Still, a few leaked memos exist.

The Judicial Watch website copies:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/071703.c_.shtml">http://www.judicialwatch.org/071703.c_.shtml

If Cheney was offering up slices of Iraq in early 2001, would that be treasonous? Don't we have a right to know what he is doing in our name, paid for with our blood and tax dollars?

We declared the oil companies exempt from any liability and seized the Iraqi oil for ourselves due to "National Emergency." You can read executive order 13303 for yourself.

13303 itself:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030522-15.html">http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030522-15.html

A very critical 13303 article:
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/weekly_2003/oil_corporations_iraq_immunity.html">http://reclaimdemocracy.org/weekly_2003/oil_corporations_iraq_immunity.html

Another one:
http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=4397">http://zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=4397

Analysis of the far reaching implications of 13303:
http://www.earthrights.org/news/institutingimmunity.shtml">http://www.earthrights.org/news/institutingimmunity.shtml

See 13303's effects for yourself. This is a website dedicated to tracking Iraqi reconstruction with an especially telling first memo posted: "Journalists obtained this memo written by a US official detailed to the CPA, which says that Iraq's chances of seeing democracy succeed have been severely imperiled by a year's worth of serious errors on the part of the Pentagon and the CPA."
http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/documents/index.shtml">http://www.iraqrevenuewatch.org/documents/index.shtml

Will our actions help or hinder our pacification of Iraq? If we are building a democracy, shouldn't the Iraqis decide who gets to profit from their oil?


4
"have him continue to slaughter and starve his own people simply because he once benefited from American largess"

I never heard a single anti-war person say they wanted Saddam in power. Revolutions start from within, not without. A revolution imposed on a country is an occupation, no matter how well intended. I, and everyone I've spoken with at the protests I've attended wanted to see more of a plan, some allies, international legitimacy, and proof of the WMD claims.

If our safety isn't the reason for war, but rather some latter-day revivalist vision of a world without slaughter and starvation, then who do we put on the list next? Saudi Arabia? Pakistan? China? North Korea? Rwanda?

****

This man we call president has cost hundreds of American lives, and tens of thousand Iraqi lives. We have inflicted more than THREE 9/11's worth of innocent civilian deaths on the Iraqis.

What if Lafayette and the French had remained in our country after the revolutionary war, designing our flag, controlling our resources, and telling us it was for our own good every time the killed a few more of us. Would we still see them as liberators today?

There are plenty of people who saw this coming and raised holy hell about it. Bush invaded in spite of us, and it will cost him the presidency, because if nothing else, we simply can't afford a THIRD catastrophic failure in intelligence or a third war right now.

Please don't vote for Bush come November.