Reply #34: Bad idea then REALLY BAD idea now! [View All]

[Proud Liberal Dem]

I definitely thought that the war would be a BAD idea as soon as Bush et. al started suggesting it in summer of 2002, especially given that it seemed like such a drastic diversion from our ongoing campaign against remnants of Al-Queda/Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Not only that but the whole idea that Iraq posed such an "imminent threat" sufficiently dangerous to require an invasion of the country seemed puzzling to me given that the information that most of us had at the time (including, apparently, even Rice & Powell) suggested that Iraq's military had been severely broken as a result of GW1, not to mention the 11 intervening years of no-fly zones, scattered airstrikes, and crippling sanctions. The idea of Iraq, a country that couldn't even control its own airspace, being an "imminent threat" to anybody in the region (let alone us) was laughable and I couldn't believe how seriously Bush et. al (and eventually a sizable majority of the public) would eventually take it. I actually thought that there might only end up being some "saber-rattling" and possibly a demand for restoration of weapons inspectors (which seemed eminently reasonable) but I never imagined that Bush would actually invade Iraq in the end. I naively thought that enough people and advisers like Powell would eventually be able to persuade Bush to back off from what appeared to be (at least to most of us) his growing obsession with invading Iraq. I believed (at the time) that SH probably had some small stockpiles of leftover pre-GW1 biological/chemical weapons in his possession but NOTHING remotely resembling the kind of "imminent threat" (i.e. "mushroom clouds") that Bush et. al was alleging. Unfortunately, although I did speak out against the war to a lot of friends (and anybody else whom might listen without throwing bricks at me), I regret that I did not have the opportunity to do much more at the time nor was there much in terms of anti-war activism here in Indiana.