Wednesday, June 29, 2005
President's speech and 11 September
Some of the Left like to point to the Downing Street Memos as "proof" of various of their attacks against President Bush, yet they fail to read them very carefully. The memo from Foreign Secretary Straw contains very important insights into the relation of 11 September to the decision to intervene in Iraq. The Foreign Secretary wrote:
"If 11 September had not happened, it is doubtful that the US would now be considering military action against Iraq. ... Objectively, the threat from Iraq has not worsened as a result of 11 September. What has however changed is the tolerance of the international community (especially that of the US), the world having witnesse[d] on September 11 just what determined evil people can these days perpetuate."
While the Foreign Secretary indicated no connection between Iraq and UBL, that conclusion appears correct as to 11 September, but not generally. The Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found a great number of contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraq.
The Downing Street Memos clearly show the honest belief of the British that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD and might use them on Israel or if he were attacked.
While Britain and the US were willing to allow Saddam to maintain those weapons in a pre-11 September world, they were not willing to do so in a post-11 September world. The convergence of WMD in Iraq and its contacts with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations could no longer be tolerated after the experience of 11 September.
The editorial writers of the LAT and NYT may have been willing to accept the risk of Saddam's placing bacteriolgical and chemical weapons in the hands of some of the terrorists with whom he had contact, the British and American administrations were not.
One may reasonably criticize the decision, but may not reasonably argue that 11 September cannot properly be argued as one of the reasons for the actions taken against Iraq. Therefore, the President quite properly reminded the American people of 11 September in his speech last night.
"If 11 September had not happened, it is doubtful that the US would now be considering military action against Iraq. ... Objectively, the threat from Iraq has not worsened as a result of 11 September. What has however changed is the tolerance of the international community (especially that of the US), the world having witnesse[d] on September 11 just what determined evil people can these days perpetuate."
While the Foreign Secretary indicated no connection between Iraq and UBL, that conclusion appears correct as to 11 September, but not generally. The Report of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence found a great number of contacts between Al Qaeda and Iraq.
The Downing Street Memos clearly show the honest belief of the British that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD and might use them on Israel or if he were attacked.
While Britain and the US were willing to allow Saddam to maintain those weapons in a pre-11 September world, they were not willing to do so in a post-11 September world. The convergence of WMD in Iraq and its contacts with Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations could no longer be tolerated after the experience of 11 September.
The editorial writers of the LAT and NYT may have been willing to accept the risk of Saddam's placing bacteriolgical and chemical weapons in the hands of some of the terrorists with whom he had contact, the British and American administrations were not.
One may reasonably criticize the decision, but may not reasonably argue that 11 September cannot properly be argued as one of the reasons for the actions taken against Iraq. Therefore, the President quite properly reminded the American people of 11 September in his speech last night.
# posted by Thomas A. Becket : 8:06 AM
