NP - Because We Could

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at yahoo.com>
To: "Pynchon List" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 3:25 PM
Subject: NP - Because We Could


> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/04/opinion/04FRIE.html
>
> Because We Could
> By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
>
> The failure of the Bush team to produce any weapons of mass destruction
> (W.M.D.'s) in Iraq is becoming a big, big story. But is it the real story
we
> should be concerned with? No. It was the wrong issue before the war,

Yes, I agree to Friedman in this. But it had been chosen by Bush & Blair.
It would have been better to raise the issue of human rights violations, of
mass murder and genocide.

> and it's the wrong issue now.
>

This may be true, but this is the way it goes in liberal democracies.
Politicians that have been caught lying are voted out of office. Bush may
get a second term but I'm quite sure that Blair's days will be over quite
soon.

> Why? Because there were actually four reasons for this war: the real
reason,
> the right reason, the moral reason and the stated reason.
>

the real reason:
"(...) was that after 9/11 America needed to hit someone in the Arab-Muslim
world. Afghanistan wasn't enough (...) If you talk to U.S. soldiers in Iraq
they
will tell you this is what the war was about."

That's exactly what I've heard on CNN from one soldier of the 101st
Airborne.

The "moral reason" he gives I absolutely agree to. But given the fanatical
character of the Shi'ite branch of Islam I'm not sure if the victors will
succeed in what Friedman calls the "right reason," building up a moderate
and decent post-Saddam Iraq.

America will not be "badly damaged" if Bush succeeds in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If he manages to force Sharon to follow the
"road map" and close all settlements the chances are better than ever and I
wish him good luck in this.

Otto