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[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

In no particular order....

1. Effort to ensure that a country with a major potential to produce oil was controlled by a government friendly to the US.

2. W's daddy issues, in wanting to "finish the job" that he incorrectly saw his father as "failing" to finish (as opposed to "prudently choosing" not to finish).

3. Someone actually believed that neocon bullshit -- y'know, that Saddam was the domino, and that if we toppled him them peace, democracy flowers and blowjobs would break out everywhere. (aka, "The government is incompetent to handle any task, except bringing democracy to the Middle East within 30 days").

4. In the panic that followed 9/11, people actually bought into the "WMD" stuff, and honestly believed it.


Beyond that, it's very hard to see that a military operation that including Muslim soldiers (they are allowed in the US forces, right?), that installed Muslim government, and that strengthened two fundamentalist Muslim regimes (Iran and Saudi Arabia), in one case by removing a long-time enemy and in the other by doing that plus allowing more Shiite power and influence, was a "war on Islam." So even if someone can't come up with a reason (like you can't), I don't see going to the "it's a war on Islam" unless the person is just committed to seeing everything as a war on Islam.

No daddy issues, no WMD (pretext, entirely). The War in Iraq was a device to control a strategic base for operations in the middle east. And one that would provide a decent enough amount of oil to pay for itself, and then some.

I was also a message - "this is what we do to dictators who refuse to toe our line."

Things didn't work out as planned.