Yes Virginia, our government is that dumb

[MichaeltheGreat]

I like the US attitude: "They have the right to demonstrate in a free Iraq."

Uh, yeah, but if the net result is that they hate your asses too, you haven't accomplished much. We already knew the Arabs didn't like us, this is supposed to be the shiny example for a new Arab world order.

Dance, dance, dance:

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


The absence of NBC attacks against coalition troops is a rather strong indication that the "Iraqi threat" was hyper inflated by the US.

I don't disagree at all, but again you are referencing military deployment not unconventional deployment, so the so called terrorist threat may not have changed. It still may not exist, but lack of WMD use doesn't rule out non-military use.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Plan Austral
Have they already found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

Not that I am aware of.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
Most of the Arab world views the rulers of Kuwait and Qatar ... as American puppets, anyway, so we can't really rely on their actions as credible indicators of arab support.

Is that at all relevent to the statement from the article I took issue with?

Last time, even Syria sent 15,000 troops.

They were also helping us against al Qaeda and provided Arab cover wrt the UN resolution we used to justify going to war. I could go on listing reasons why its counterproductive to threaten Syria if you wish.

[ThePantaloonDog]

I still have no idea what moron in the Bush adminstration thought that invading Iraq would make Arab hate turn into Arab love.

-"Hey we just toppled your evil dictator."

~"Good job now get out."

-"Actually we were going to stick around for a while"

~"Ummm.. No you won't..."

[orange]

Che do you have links for these articles?

[Trevman]

[QUTOE] The whole pretext for our unilateral charge into Iraq was that the American people were in imminent danger from Saddam and his mighty war machine. The threat was so clear and present that we couldn't even give inspectors searching for weapons of mass destruction -- hey, remember those? -- another 30 days, as France had wanted. [/QUTOE]

It wasn't their war machine, but the threat Saddam would "loan" one of his WMDs to a terrorist group to attack the US. The UN has demanded extension after extension, and passed resolution after resolution regarding Iraq without actually doing much. We had already given the inspectors some more time, and they were simply proving us right.

[chequita guevara]

They're both on Salon.com. You can get the Huffington article on her website also.

[Sandman]

It wasn't their war machine, but the threat Saddam would "loan" one of his WMDs to a terrorist group to attack the US.

Terrorists can ply their trade pretty well with box-cutters, sniper rifles and milk cartons of petrol.

[Nubclear]

Originally posted by Trevman
It wasn't their war machine, but the threat Saddam would "loan" one of his WMDs to a terrorist group to attack the US. The UN has demanded extension after extension, and passed resolution after resolution regarding Iraq without actually doing much. We had already given the inspectors some more time, and they were simply proving us right.

They were proving you right by not finding any Weapons of Mass Destruction? Thats pretty twisted logic.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
The absence of NBC attacks against coalition troops is a rather strong indication that the "Iraqi threat" was hyper inflated by the US.

Is Saddam stupid enough to irradiate, or unleash a plague upon, his own country? Chemical weapons are different; he just has to worry about contrary winds blowing the crap in unpleasant directions, like cities. But the "NB" part seems a rather obviously stupid idea IMO.

[yago]

Just for grins, I looked for the list of "coalition of the willing." Lo, I found this little gem on BBC:

The Coalition of the Willing shall not be forgotten. (I was under the impression that Lichtenstein also was a member of the coalition, but that seems to be wrong.)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=573&e=3&cid=573&u=/nm/20030328/od_nm/iraq_usa_slovenia_dcLJUBLJANA

(Reuters) - The United States mistakenly named Slovenia as a partner in its war against Iraq (news - web sites) and even offered it a share of the money budgeted for the conflict, the tiny Alpine nation said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Anton Rop said Washington goofed

"When we asked for an explanation, the State Department told us we were named in the document by mistake as we are not a member of the coalition against Iraq," Rop told a hastily arranged news conference.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,917741,00.html

it will come as welcome news to our troops in the Gulf this week that when the going gets tough, Azerbaijan is right behind them. The "coalition of the willing", as Colin Powell has called it, is the list of 30 countries that responded positively to a phone call from Washington, seeking their support against Iraq. Starting with Afghanistan, ending with Uzbekistan and with 15 countries in between preferring to remain anonymous, it is an imaginative list, eschewing the usual suspects to give those nations not used to playing a role on the world stage a chance to shine. Albania, for example. And Georgia.

Eritrea is one of the poorest, most war-torn countries in the world. I call the embassy to ask how it intends to show its support of the US and coalition of the willing, of which it is a member? There is a long, stunned pause before the spokeswoman says: "Can you call back tomorrow morning?"

http://www.areporter.com/sys-tmpl/thecoalitionofthewilling/

Now up to 47! Our 10 latest allies are: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Iceland, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Palau, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Uganda!

[Sava]

Albania, there's a pillar of Democracy, freedom, and moral values.

[Shi Huangdi]

We took out Iraq before they posed a danger. We got them before they got nukes that could harm us.

[Sava]

Good idea Shi. Also, let's start putting people in jail before they commit crimes. That logic would lead to world peace!