- The French were right.
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- The liberals were right.
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- The peaceniks were right.
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- True conservatives were right.
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- Veterans opposed to the war - I hear from more of them
than you might imagine - were also right. They said this war was based
on lies, and it was. They said this war, like most wars, would lead to
more chaos and killing, and it has.
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- Now some in the Bush administration are telling the world
that the car bombing of United Nations headquarters in Iraq is evidence
that our policy is right.
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- How illogical can you be? Insurgents blow up oil pipelines
and water mains; American soldiers get killed or maimed almost daily. Demonstrations
are ongoing. And the biggest blow from the Iraqi resistance so far - destruction
of U.N. headquarters in Iraq - is presented by the Bush team as evidence
that our policy is correct because - because - because this proves terrorists
are really, really bad.
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- Duh. We all know terrorists are really, really bad. That's
why it's best not to give them more chaos in which to thrive. That's why
it's best not to stir up new nests unnecessarily as we did by invading
Iraq.
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- The Soviets couldn't win in Afghanistan, and I'll be
surprised if, in five years or seven, American-style democracy has taken
hold in Iraq. Like Afghanistan under the Russians, Iraq has become the
rallying point for a growing jihad.
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- It all makes for mesmerizing news, and I've spent lots
of time tuned to the daily media looking for evidence to support my gut
feeling that this war, like most wars, was based on lies and misconceptions
from the start. You don't have to look very hard these days. It's like
shooting fish in a barrel.
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- Every public argument for making war on Iraq has broken
down. Let's start with the biggest:
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- - Weapons of mass destruction: None has been found. I'm
sure that, at some point, evidence will mysteriously appear to show Iraq
had a weapons program, but we already knew that, and to prove they had
a program is a far cry from finding the tons of anthrax and chemical bombs,
the armed missiles and mobile labs, the remote drones and nuclear components
the Bush team scared us with almost daily in its drive to war.
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- Speaking of nukes, Bush's allegations were based almost
solely on documents he apparently knew were forged. What could be more
damning? Bottom line, if WMDs existed, they're now in the hands of terrorists
or unfriendly governments or they're up for grabs in the Iraqi desert some
place. Either way, it's a bad result.
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- - The link to al-Qaida: The myth that Iraq had significant
ties to al-Qaida was based on a hospital visit to Iraq by one man and another
meeting in a third country that likely never took place. No evidence has
surfaced for an Iraqi-al-Qaida link. Ironically, Bush's misguided war now
has forged just such a link. Osama bin Laden recently called on all Muslims
to oppose our occupation of Iraq, and they appear to be responding.
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- - Iraq would welcome us as liberators: It happened only
in a few places, and some of those appeared stage-managed. Now Iraqis are
criticizing and demonstrating and shooting Americans. We've become occupiers.
In the process we've killed, maimed, destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure
and caused the loss of priceless cultural artifacts from the dawn of civilization.
Some of our actions can be justified, but being justified and being wise
are different things.
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- - We'd be out in 60 days, leaving behind a democracy
that would take root, then blossom across the Middle East: Well, if majority
rule flowers in Iraq, Shiites will run the place, as they do in Iran. That's
who the majority is.
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- - Saddam Hussein is an evil man who must be destroyed.
As this is written, he's still at large. All thinking people hope he's
brought in, preferably alive, so he can shed more light on those who helped
him in his rise to power, including some now serving Bush.
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- - Now, as I say, the car-bombing of U.N. headquarters
in Iraq is being used as proof we're in the right. Two points: One, like
several thousand others, those U.N. workers would be alive today except
for the will to empire by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice,
Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and a few others who are pulling the strings.
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- Two. If, in Country X, the power is out, the water's
out, the oil pipeline is burning, unemployment tops 60 percent, murder
and rape are daily occurrences, the treasury is looted, the museums are
looted, official history is a tool for propaganda, and U.N. headquarters
are bombed, then the ruler of Country X should be held accountable, right?
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- Well, Iraq is Country X. Bush is its ruler.
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- - Don Williams is the founding editor of New Millennium
Writings. You may write to him at PO Box 2463, Knoxville, TN., 37901, e-mail
him at donwilliams7@att.net or phone him at 428-0389.
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- Copyright 2003, KnoxNews. All Rights Reserved.
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- http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/opinion_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_364_2200324,00.html
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