Maybe its me, but this is the most bizarre war excuse I've heard

[Eureka]

Being in Aus means I might not get to hear all the most bizarre excuses for invading Iraq, but on TV last night there was a debate where it was argued that the US (administration) invaded Iraq because they wanted to send a message to the Saudis, Iran and Syria. (Personally, I think invading Saudi Arabia might have been a more efficient way of doing that, but what do I know about waging war)

Transcript here under the heading Terrorism Debate.

So excuse my ignorance, but is George Friedman a known nutcase, or is it just me?

[HawkerHurricane]

1. Sounds like my cousin, Charlie

Who hates Bush with a passion, but thinks the invasion of Iraq was 'the right thing to do to show those Saudi's we mean business'!

'Excuse me, Charlie, but don't the Saudis hate the Iraqis?'

[xchrom]

2. i don't know who friedman is

but that's right up there with really, really dumb.

[Bombtrack]

3. An invasion of Saudi Arabia would have resulted in a REAL WW3

or WW4 if you go by Woolseys thinking

If you haven't heard that reason, you haven't really listened to or read too much on the subject other than from ant-war writers.

Iraq was a strategic middle east base of operations, a moderate muslim country that the proponents of the war want to use as a springboard to illiberalize the middle east.

It also had about a percent of the military power that either Iran or Saudi Arabia had, countries that were really more important in the SHORTTERM security wise, while Iraq was more of a threat in the longterm

By turning Iraq(and afganistan)into somewhat pro-western, market-based, illiberal countries, you surround Iran, which is already on the verge of illiberal revolution, with more or less freedom and human rights etc, hoping to take care of Iran that way, either forcing the existing government to reform or be overthrown by democrats.

And you put pressure on the Saudis, first economically, because the coallition countries now have Iraq to get oil from instead of the Saudi's, and second the thinking is that democrats and liberals(in the classic sense not the modern american) in Saudi Arabia will become more powerful in Saudi Arabian life and make the country more moderate.

[specimenfred1984]

4. Friedman's a Nutcase Liar Puke/Corp. Whore

http://stratfor.com/corp/Corporate.neo?s=ABO&c=b

From the link:

<< Stratfor's impressive track record of accurate forecasts speaks for itself. Here are just a few of the events Stratfor's clients knew about before anyone else:
- Predicted in our 2003 annual forecast that a powerful recovery would take place
- Predicted that a war with Iraq was inevitable, and alerted its readers six hours before bombs fell that the war had begun (August 2002). >>

And, they have offices in Texas and D.C..

All the "war" excuses are wierd lies to me. The wierdest doublespeak to me is the current one, "we're in Iraq to fight the terrorists there so they don't attack us here". WTF?

[jonoboy]

5. Friedman is a bloody nightmare

no wonder the US is in the f****** mess it's in with ratbags like this having an input..he's actually telling the truth that it was all lies and that it's all ok..yet Paul McGeoh who was on the ground during the whole conflict descibes what a mess it is.

Needless to say..he weaved Bill Clinton's name into it.