Quote of the Day
“Those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe today that we are not safer with his capture, don't have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be elected president.”
- Vice President Dick Cheney questioning John Kerry’s patriotism and fitness for office
Oops! That’s not Cheney! My bad.
1 comment:
pardon the anonymous post, but i didn't have the time or desire to set up an account.
with all due respect, but when are americans, liberal and conservative alike, going to stand up and not accept the argument that "america is safer now that saddam hussein is out of power" as an acceptable justification for the iraq war?
do not misunderstand me, its not my intention to get into a debate as to whether or not the iraq war was justified, that is a horse of another color.
the problem with this justification, besides the fact that its an arguable and optimistic interpretation of the events in iraq, and outside of the kerry quote you rarely hear people carrying a rifle say it, is that it is simply a disingenuous and lazy argument. The reason is that its a disingenuous and lazy argument is that the central issue of the iraq war is not america's safety, its the cost for that safety.
Wouldn't america be safer if we got rid of all the handguns in the country? Wouldn't we be safer if we drove 10mph on I95? wouldn't america be safer if we got rid of all the airplanes?
wouldn't we be safer as a country if we outlawed alcoholic beverages? what if we invaded china, south korea, syria, or for that matter, germany?
of course we would. the reason we don't do those things is because the perceived "cost" is greater than the perceived safety benefit.
the same is true here -- the fundamental issue of iraq is not whether america is safer, its whether or not the incremental safety of the iraq war justifies the loss of american lives, the loss of innocent iraqi civilians, the decreased ability to respond militarily in other parts of the world, the billions of dollars our children will have to pay, the injury to our nation's image, and the short term rise in terrorism that this conflict may cause. Simply saying that america is safer is akin to merely wrapping yourself in the flag and disavowing yourself of any legitimate questions about your judgement or the ramifications of your actions. The office of potus isn't about making decisions, its about making the right ones, and all of us, regardless of political affiliation, need to make our c-i-c answer those questions
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