I am as equally tired of hearing that there were no WMDs as I am hearing “well, no, but there was still the intent” as though that were sufficient “findings” to justify war. The entire area of discussion is bogus because what’s done is done, and we’re stuck with a tragic blunder that needs remedying. I had written at the outset of the preëmptive strike that it was pure shock and awe brouhaha because the UN was always at war, led by Clinton’s sporadic bombings of Iraq and countering the periodic no-fly zone anti-aircraft attacks from Saddam.

Had the Bush administration continued the Clinton strategic bombardment to take out the regime with the aid of Gen. Zinni’s Desert Fox strategy, there would have been no global perception of irrational, paranoid action, along with the global opinion that we in an act of vengeance diverted attention from the war on terror. Further, with the 9/11 license to get even tougher, particularly since Bush even before 9/11 considered Iraq as the greater threat in the “axis of evil,” he could have simply engaged in aggressive diplomacy by insisting on reviving the inspections, and clamping down on “oil for food” corruption.

Again: what’s done is done; we must, however, unravel the damage done by admitting to impulsiveness that caused much heartbreak and to pledge a global tact by inviting heretofore rejected nations to help alleviate this interim problem so we can again concentrate on terrorism by Muslim renegades threatening the globe.

Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: October 20, 2004.

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