Peter Kaminski

I like Tom Friedman’s analysis of the reasons to invade Iraq:

• real reason: needed to demonstrate with bullets and blood in the Arab-Muslim world that 9/11 attacks were unacceptable;
• right reason: need to foster a progressive Arab regime to defuse ideas of mass destruction (need to close dignity gap to do this);
• moral reason: Saddam was a monster;
• stated reason: “But because the Bush team never dared to spell out the real reason for the war, and (wrongly) felt that it could never win public or world support for the right reasons and the moral reasons, it opted for the stated reason…” … WMD.

Friedman also reiterates that we must rebuild Iraq and put it on a progressive path.

His commentary, in full (free registration required):

<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/04/opinion/04FRIE.html>

Same URL with Google News authpass (no login required):

<http://tinyurl.com/djhb>

I’d add that in a democracy, it is unacceptable for a national leadership to rely on manipulation instead of honest dialog with the citizenry to accomplish its goals, no matter how noble or ignoble the goals.