The Meat of the Matter

Thus Ends the Argument …

Today’s news should do it. A consensus view of all 16 U.S. Intelligence Agencies indicates what I have always suspected, but never had the expertise or ability to prove: the US occupation of Iraq is making Terrorism worse, not better. We attacked and occupied Iraq based on the assumption that they had WMDs and that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al’ Qaida. After both of these assumptions were proven false, the remaining argument for most war supporters was that we were waging War with Terrorism, and that our presence in Iraq was somehow aiding that effort. At that point, the argument became one of conjecture and assumption, and nobody could ever win. Well, now the case is closed. Our presence in Iraq has clearly been shown to be assisting terrorism. Their numbers are increasing; they are in more places, with newer, better and more destructive ideas—by using the chaotic Iraq as their training ground. It would seem to me that people who have clung to belief and supported Bush’s war should, at this point, concede that perhaps it turned out to be a bad idea after all. Bush claimed last week that the world is a safer place because we removed Saddam from power. That, it turns out, is incorrect. Our reasons for going in were wrong, and our reasons for staying were misguided. It’s almost October. Surprise.