Iraq and Justification

Sorry to come back to politics, but I think this needs to be addressed. I admit I was wrong. According to what I've heard about the last report on the Ba'athist weapons programs, there were no weapons. There were some kind of weapons programs, but they were nowhere near to being a threat as long as the sanctions regime remained in place. If the sanctions were removed, Saddam Hussein wished to reacquire WMD, but even then they were to a be deterrent against Iran. So, why the deception? To keep outsiders guessing is my guess. The possible existence of a WMD arsenal gave Iraq leverage on its own.

So where does justification come in? Well, clearly the WMD argument was not justified. Nevertheless, what's done is done, and really the argument about whether it was justified or not, legal or not, is moot. What would knowing whether it was legal or justified actually change on the ground? Nothing. In any case, one must consider whether the sanctions regime could have continued indefinately. I doubt it. Iraq was close to getting them removed thanks to its influence with France, Germany and Russia, all of whom stood to gain valuable oil concessions if the sanctions ended. So, with 20/20 hindsight, I believe I can say that the war was unjustified and there could have been a peaceful solution to the WMD issue. Unfortunately the obstinacy of the American administration and that of the Ba'athist government made this impossible.

This brings me back to my initial justification for the war (that is clearly wrong given the current chaos on the ground) , which was that it made is possible to bring down the sanctions without giving in to Saddam Hussein. Clearly the sanctions, while successful at preventing the return of Iraq's WMD programs, were too harmful for Iraqi citizens. Furthermore, the war could be justified (somewhat) along the lines that Iraq was continually breaking the terms of the treaty they signed at the end of the first war. Lastly, the war allowed the removal of a nasty dictator (though arguably the present chaos is not an improvement). In my opinion, this was a good thing.

So, think what you may. I can admit I was wrong about WMD, but I still think the war didn't have a wholly bad outcome. There was justification on some level. In any case, it's all moot because whether it was justified or not is totally irrelevant to present circumstances.

R