Response to Mr. David Meyers regarding Iraq war

Mr. Meyers claims, “The Bush Administration’s plan was to use Iraq as a stepping stone to engage Iran and Syria.” If that was the case, why didn’t Bush say so at the time? The war was sold as an urgent matter of National Defense because Iraq actually possessed WMDs.

Mr. Meyers believes that part of the rationale for the war was that Iraq “had one of the world’s most inhumane human rights records.” If that was our concern, we should be in Darfur, where many more people are being murdered right now. I think we don’t do anything about Darfur because they have no oil.

Mr. Meyers claims that “Saddam [was] rumored to be trying to acquire WMDs” and that “a good reason to invade [was to] set up a friendly democracy.” Rumor is not a good reason to go to war. Especially when so many, even within our own intelligence agencies, doubted the claims of WMDs. Also, it is pure folly to think there will ever be a “friendly democracy” in Iraq. We may be able to set up and support a compliant dictator (as with Saddam). Over 60 percent of the Iraqi people think it’s acceptable to attack American troops.

Mr. Meyers says, “How can you believe there were no WMDs when there was so much overwhelming proof?” Here is a direct quote from Bush, posted on the White House Web site: “The main reason we went into Iraq at the time was we thought he had weapons of mass destruction. It turns out he didn’t.” The only question is: did Bush lie or was he misled by shoddy intelligence?

Mr. Meyers claims that the war is not about oil and that “it’s estimated there is more oil in our country than in the Middle East.” Search the Internet for “proven oil reserves” and you will find that the US is not even in the top 10 countries. We have approximately 20 percent of Iraq’s reserves and less than 10 percent of Saudi Arabia’s.

To honestly speak of our country’s problems and issues, we must deal with facts, not opinions or right-wing talking points.

Jon Monday