Nub of the problem
Why we went to war? This was the name of a documentary on More4 last night in the UK. Intriguing question I thought. I still cannot answer that one. Why did the UK and US get involved in Iraq? All the evidence now as it was pointed out at the time, shows that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. Yet this is the key reason for invading.
My questions to Tony Blair would be:
- So how did we make this leap from 9/11 to Iraq? What was the bridge?
- Was Osama Bin Laden not the main suspect, the key to figuring out the Al Qaeda threat? He is still alive and well if we are to believe all reports, certainly no-one has said that he is dead or captured. Saddam was well known to despise terrorists. Terrorism was not his motivation. Despotism was his. I still see no link between 9/11 and Iraq, I think this is a key question that needs revisited.
- What was the real key decision for going into Iraq? What was it that made everyone say "invasion is the best solution here"?
- Is it because it was an easy target, as it had no WMD?
- Was it revenge, finish a job from the 1991 gulf war? Was Saddam threatening to reveal some detail or fact and he had to be stopped?
- Or was the terrorist threat and WMD one big smoke screen to cover up the fact that the US has no more oil and is at the mercy of the Saudis and OPEC and that the US simply wanted to control a sizeable asset of oil to remove their needs in the middle-east? That way, they would be in much more control of their own destiny. You join up the dots, stand back and before you know it the image is in the shape of an oil barrel.
I think the UK faced the unfavourable decision of dropping off the big league table (US, Russia, China) and falling in with the other support teams (France, Germany, Spain, Italy). To save face, we jumped on board regardless. Tony Blair and co had to make anything believable to the public in order to maintain this big hitter status. The UK didn't need to be there, the US has enough logisitics and resources to do the job themselves, yet we find ourselves there.
My questions to Tony Blair would be:
- So how did we make this leap from 9/11 to Iraq? What was the bridge?
- Was Osama Bin Laden not the main suspect, the key to figuring out the Al Qaeda threat? He is still alive and well if we are to believe all reports, certainly no-one has said that he is dead or captured. Saddam was well known to despise terrorists. Terrorism was not his motivation. Despotism was his. I still see no link between 9/11 and Iraq, I think this is a key question that needs revisited.
- What was the real key decision for going into Iraq? What was it that made everyone say "invasion is the best solution here"?
- Is it because it was an easy target, as it had no WMD?
- Was it revenge, finish a job from the 1991 gulf war? Was Saddam threatening to reveal some detail or fact and he had to be stopped?
- Or was the terrorist threat and WMD one big smoke screen to cover up the fact that the US has no more oil and is at the mercy of the Saudis and OPEC and that the US simply wanted to control a sizeable asset of oil to remove their needs in the middle-east? That way, they would be in much more control of their own destiny. You join up the dots, stand back and before you know it the image is in the shape of an oil barrel.
I think the UK faced the unfavourable decision of dropping off the big league table (US, Russia, China) and falling in with the other support teams (France, Germany, Spain, Italy). To save face, we jumped on board regardless. Tony Blair and co had to make anything believable to the public in order to maintain this big hitter status. The UK didn't need to be there, the US has enough logisitics and resources to do the job themselves, yet we find ourselves there.
posted by Stu Bell at 1:20 pm
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