The Individual Vs. The State, An Unusual Case

[kandrathe]

I still think you are trying to oversimplify things and see history in black and white terms. Saddam wasn't trying to bluff us that he still had WMD, but he was trying to appear strong regionally. Weapons inspections had stopped and he was interfering with them. Presumably he didn't believe we would actually invade. On the surface it was plausible that there still were some weapons remaining. From there a lot of things went wrong, from within the intelligence community, a wing of the republican party, the press, and the government.

In some cases, such as when WMD's are involved, the international community requires verification, not just the leaders word. On the other hand, what does national sovereignty mean in the face of the kind of power arrayed against these little nations. Our justification for pre-emptive action, without a UN mandate was our flimsy suppositions that there was something there. We didn't find it, and therefore the justification for the war appears to be a sham. It wasn't really a "wing" of the republican party, and I don't think party identifies the group adequately. On the right, there are the "neocons", but there is also a progressive right, "strong defense" democratic group as well.

I think it's a stretch to lay all the blame on the WMD lie and say Bush and Blair should be brought to trial. On the other hand, it is unlikely that I will forgive the Republican party in my lifetime. Also, whenever people say that it is a terrible thing that the decline of traditional media is leading to the end of true investigative journalism, I remember that when it really mattered to me they weren't any better than a random blogger.

After 9-11 everyone wanted payback -- and they really didn't care where that came from. Most of the non-war "Republicans" are now moving toward Libertarians who tend to be non-war unless we've got something at stake.

The Neocon's led by Bush now used their political capital to try to stick the WMD and rope Saddam into the whole "war on terror" campaign -- while Saddam's terrorist ties are probably less than most in the region (other than his own irregular home grown Fedayeen Saddam). But, yes, the first casualty of war is truth, and mostly the propaganda machine beat the drums of war, at first. I think Bush the younger joined in the vendetta after they tried to kill his dad.