Iraq II

Well, the new blogging program (Frequency 1.1) works pretty well. If I decide to keep blogging, I'll probably keep this program and send some money the author's way.

It's been seven months since I posted "Legal-style Analysis of Colin Powell's testimony." The media and many citizens are up in arms about the lack of actual weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq. So what?

As I set forth in that essay, Colin Powell in various speeches gave sufficient evidence on three potential casi belli (causes of war), none of which had anything to do with WMD. In the mid 1990s, then-President Bill Clinton and his staff provided sufficient evidence linking Saddam to two other casi belli, neither of which was related to WMD.

That's five non-WMD causes of war--the assassination of diplomat Lawrence Foley, multiple violations of the 1991 cease-fire agreement, providing aid and comfort to Abu Abbas (leader of those who murdered American Leon Klinghoffer and others aboard the Achille Lauro in 1985), the attempted assassination in 1993 of former President George H.W. Bush, and providing assistance to the original (1993) World Trade Center bombers. The 1993 WTC bombing was an al-Qaeda operation, conducted with material assistance from Iraq, in case anyone is wondering whether Saddam was linked to Osama bin Laden; strong evidence also links al-Qaeda to the Foley assassination, again with Iraqi help.

War against a state that murders your citizens is justifiable any time under any interpretation of international law.

If Bush made any mistake at all, it was in trying to use the WMD threat to politically disarm his opponents and to try for some kind of U.N. cover. As we all saw, the Security Council absolutely believed his evidence on WMD, but when the chips were down they still voted against authorization; thus proving only their own perfidy. Bush's political opponents were bound to start bleating by fall 2003 anyway as the election season geared up.

We had cause to destroy the Baathist government. We did it. One can argue that it would have been more prudent to do other things. But the failure to find WMD is an embarrassment for the President, nothing more.

Steve Setzer