Wednesday, May 12, 2004

The Wrong War

A friend of mine made a comment about "the link between al Qaeda and Iraq." I about blew up at him. Then he clarified what he meant: that there was not a link before the war, but now there is. I was relieved to hear him say that. But I still feel compelled to write a bit about my feelings here.

After 9/11, both the FBI and CIA told Bush that Iraq did not sponsor al Qaeda and that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks. But at the time of the war, 70% of the people in this nation believed that Iraq had something to do with it. Do you know why? Because that's exactly what the Administration wanted you to think! They didn't directly make the claim; they just talked about 9/11 and Iraq in the same breath to give the impression. The administration played on the patriotism and fear of the people after 9/11 and drove us into the wrong war. We should have gone after al Qaeda. We should have gone after their state support with diplomatic sanctions (Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the biggest supporters). Instead we're making their anti-America case stronger. Now we have Iraqi's being abused in prisons and Americans getting their heads cut off. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. And people keep dying.

1 comment:

Travis said...

[Imported comment* originally authored by Bud .] Perhaps no weapons of mass destruction have been found, because they were taken out of iraq by al qaeda...