ANOTHER REASON IRAQ WAS A BAD IDEA

Forget the WMD lies and just concentrate on the "Freedumb" justification. (h/t Glenn Greenwald) Prof. Stephen Walt of Harvard made this observation in February, 2003, to the Globe & Mail¹:

"The Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons pointed right at us, was governed by tyrants and mass murderers, yet they couldn't use them for blackmail or regional expansion," says Stephen Walt of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. "So why does the Bush administration think Saddam can blackmail us if he got his hands on a few?"

"Advocates of war claim that invading Iraq will trigger a process like the Velvet Revolutions in Eastern Europe, and bring a lot of Arab Lech Walesas and Vaclav Havels to power," says Stephen Walt of the Kennedy School of Government.

"This is a dream world. The populations in most of these countries are more anti-American than their governments. Radical change is as likely to open the door to Islamic extremists as to bring liberals to power. We are playing with fire in doing this. Our invasion will resurrect images of colonialism, and fuel even greater anger at the United States."

¹The Globe and Mail (Canada)
February 15, 2003 Saturday
Iraq and a hard case;
Polls show that most of us are still confused about the prospect of war - with good reason. As DOUG SAUNDERS reports, the most cogent arguments, pro and con, seldom make the nightly news
BYLINE: DOUG SAUNDERS
SECTION: FOCUS; Pg. F5
LENGTH: 3079 words