Charles V. Peña of Cato on Al Qaeda — Not Iraq — Is the Real Threat:
The 9/11 commission report will stand by the conclusion of a previous staff report that there was “no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States” and that known contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda “do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship.” Thus, one of the justifications used by the Bush administration for invading Iraq – an Iraq-al Qaeda alliance – appears invalid.
Of course, quite a few pro-war supporters equate all Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners with terrorism, so I don’t expect that tidbit to make a real difference in their minds. Few really cared about why we were attacking Saddam and Iraq, only that they were from the Middle East and that we must “never forget.” Of course, I never forgot that no Iraqi men were among the 19 hijackers, while the majority were from Saudi Arabia. But hey, fuck the facts, we gotta kill some people. Scratch that. We gotta sit on our asses in safety, corn chips at the ready, while others risk their lives in combat. Or so the chickenhawk creed goes.
Of course, there is always the convienent excuse that we were enforcing the UN disarmament agreement from the Gulf War, but as a libertarian, I can’t perceive that as anything but worldpoliceman interventionism. Exactly how and why did it become OUR young men and women’s responsibility to go to war in 1990 in the first place? Let alone, continue to enforce this agreement with their blood? Also, someone needs to explain to this libertarian how stealing billions of dollars from American citizens for the purpose of waging wars of intervention is anything but wrong. Further, if we are going to claim this is a continuation of our previous dealings with Iraq, then let’s stop convienently leaving out the fact that our internal tampering and nation-building in Iraq began in 1958, not 1990 with the buildup of the Gulf War. If we are going to use the Gulf War and Iraq’s chemical weapons programs as justification for nation-building and interventionism, let’s see to it that those American men and women in past Administrations are held accountable for their role in assisting Hussein. Let’s hold folks accountable for extending the Iran-Iraq war. Let’s hold people accountable for sending Donald Rumsfeld to make nice-nice with Saddam AFTER he gassed thousands of Kurds. Let’s stop pretending this only started in 1990. It didn’t.
Nonetheless, President Bush continues to insist that “we were right to go into Iraq” and that, as a result, “the American people are safer.” But this assertion is hard to reconcile with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge’s warning that al Qaeda is planning “a large-scale attack in the United States.” Ultimately, it is impossible to ignore the reality that al Qaeda – not Iraq – attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 and remains the real threat to America.
In other words, according to our oh-so ethical and religious president, the ends justify the means with regards to killing folk in Iraq. Funny, I didn’t read that anywhere in my Scripture studies, but hey – what do I know? I only believe in principles and shit – something we were promised when the current guy ran for office.
Read the rest of Mr. Peña’s commentary here.