This is the first post I ever made about Iraq. I posted this on 8 Oct 2002, two days before the United States House of Representatives passed resolution H.J.RES.114, "To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq." My attitude at the time of this post was that I understood both sides of the Iraq war argument, but I wasn't ready to personally take one side or the other. It didn't take very long for that to change.
So we've got this whole Iraq mess on our hands now. I personally don't know what to make of it. I'm on both sides of the argument, if that's possible. One thing I know for sure though - I'm glad I'm not in the shoes of someone who actually has decisions to make in this area. What an awesome responsibility. Not awesome-cool; awesome-heavy, huge, great, mind-boggling.
I understand to some extent the argument that Hussein is in possession of, or creating, these insane weapons. He's pretty screwed-up himself and I think there's a legitimate possibility of him using them against us. Because of that I can understand the logic that says we should take him out before he has a chance to do anything to us.
However, I also understand the other argument. I don't know if we have any proof that he has all these weapons. I haven't heard of or seen any. That's not to say that our government doesn't have the proof; but if they do they're not showing it to us. Well, if we don't have proof then essentially we'd be attacking another country because we don't like them and we think they might attack us. I don't want to even think about the can of worms that will open up. We'd no longer have a leg to stand on when we condemn other countries for attacking people. We'd be guilty of it ourselves.
There's also the issue of the humanitarian situation. If we follow through and attack Iraq it will throw the whole region into turmoil. Will we follow through and provide humanitarian aid to these people, or will we just stand by and let them be uprooted from their homes and die? We started helping out in Afghanistan after the war there. Here's what's happening now. (link no longer valid - was a link to an MSNBC article talking about the conditions in Afghanistan at the time)
I just don't know. I won't be surprised if I wake up some morning and find out that half the country of Iraq is gone. Everyone keeps throwing around these "plans" for how we're going to do this, and when it's going to happen. They're not stupid. You don't throw out plans for a war and then actually follow them. That's insane! Things are not going to go the way we're being told. Watch and see.
