I suspect these sentiments are rather more common in the US than anywhere in Europe. It is I am sure important to understand the view of the Americans looking at this complex issue through ‘911’ glasses. Not even the most pro-Iraq war Englishman would be likely to hold unswervingly to these sentiments, but even the most anti-war Englishman will surely understand a little where these guys are coming from if they replay those images of planes crashing into towers that we can all see in our brains.
Jonah Goldberg is quite clear that Saddam was responsible for WMD confusion he states “There are two kinds of people when it comes to foreign policy after 9-11: those who think we have the luxury to take chances and those who don’t.
Whatever we discover in Iraq at the end of the day, one thing has been crystal clear for a decade: Saddam Hussein very much wanted the world to think he had weapons of mass destruction…
Maybe he was bluffing…..Who cares? Saddam played games. And we said very clearly that after 9-11 we were in no mood to play games anymore.”
Meanwhile US and British Troops, UN and Red Cross workers, and innocent Iraquis continue to be in fear of their lives in a deeply troubled nation. There are layers of complexity in this situation that go far deeper than a superficial view.
We may not be able to play games, but still some form of carefully considered justice must bee seen to be enacted at the checkpoint, in the ‘unlawful combatant’ camps, and on the streets of liberated Iraq. The image we are receiving at least at the hands of the media does not always reflect this, and America is going to have to find ways of improving its image, especially across the Middle East, or else the current situation risks evolving into something far worse.
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