Kristof: Victory is ours!
Here’s an interesting angle on the Mr. Bush’s plans for war with Iraq: Declare victory!
MoveOn.org sends me e-mail updates every few days about what can be done to keep the pressure on the Bush administration to simply let the inspections work. Today’s message made an interesting point: The inspections have already had the effect that war would have, meaning simply that it is impossible for Hussein to develop weapons in full view of the inspectors. And he can hardly afford to attack the U.S. just now, either.
MoveOn offers this excerpt from a New York Times article by Nicholas Kristof:
“As the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace put it in a new
report on Iraq, the U.S. goal of preventing any attack by Iraq has
already been achieved.
‘Saddam Hussein is effectively incarcerated and under watch by a force that could respond immediately and devastatingly to any aggression,’ the report noted. ‘Inside Iraq, the inspection teams preclude any significant advance in [weapons of mass destruction] capabilities. The status quo is safe for the American people.’
MoveOn also points out that General Norman Schwarzkopf “hasn’t seen enough evidence” to convince him that war is the right answer. Coming from the guy who won the first war with Iraq, that should be something the administration should take into consideration. Think it will?
It’s a shame Colin Powell has seemingly reversed his position and started supporting the war. He seemed ever so much more sensible when his views were more like Schwarzkopf’s.
Of course, it would be political suicide for Bush to back away from war now. So I guess we’ll have one anyway, so as not to unfairly damage his re-election prospects. Or should that be his re-steal-the-election prospects?
