Colin Powell presents the case to the UN...

I'm *against* unilateral action against Iraq because I believe the proof that they have strong ties to terrorism and therefore are an immediate threat to the US and its allies is very weak.

I'm *in favor of* UN action against Iraq in accordance with the 4-5 UN Resolutions banning WMD in the nation of Iraq (the result of the war in Kuwait). I believe there is still a month or two before for some very serious negotiations between the two parties (UN and Iraq) and they should be trying to get a hold of each other. I find it difficult to believe that anyone would deny Iraq has such weapons.

I need to add to something too....

>>And of course the problem with the Iraq + Al Qaeda = KILL THEM ALL equation is that Pakistan easily solves A, B and C of yr hypothesis above<<

The US went to the UN yesterday to prove that Iraq still has a chemical and biological weapons program, which they CANNOT have by international law and are subject to disarmament as a result. The US cannot do the same thing with Pakistan in the UN, even if they wanted to. Why? Because Pakistan can have as many WMD as it damn well pleases. It never lost a war so badly that it had to negotiate a cease fire that gave away its ability to have such things. Iraq does not have this freedom, thus the US went to the UN to try and drum up support.

>>How suprised will the Iraqis be when the hundreds of thousands of troops massed in kuwait and saudi come pouring over the border. <<

They aren't coming from Saudi Arabia, far as I know. The Saudis aren't housing troops this time because they're scared shitless of the possible "retorts" from their citizens.

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Alan

Yup...just read that. They must be getting oil rights and a aid package then. They held out for a loooooong time.

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Alan

interesting to read these threads 18 years later

pic.twitter.com/U32mZrjF8g

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) October 19, 2021

ackerman: https://foreverwars.substack.com/p/the-only-man-who-could-have-stopped

momus OTM

The US is just trying to show that Iraq is lying about its stockpiles of WMD (which almost certainly exist except in the mind of only the most hardened pacifist)

Holy shit at how conservative/blinkered 2003 ilx was. "I just assume Iraq has WMDs and connections to Al Q", "Taking oil is a legitimate foreign policy action".

The invasion of Iraq was the turning point in my radicalization from a somewhat apolitical former conservative toward a progressive. So, thanks, GWB.

Momus and Lynsk3y as the voices of reason!

tbf I'm guessing a lot of what was happening here was ppl pushing back against Momus because of his hot takes on, like, a hundred other topics

I didn't expect to spend 40 mins yesterday destroying Colin Powell's rep on Facebook with Democrats.

Yeah lol same. I was raised v conservative yet entirely put off by W’s affect and evangelicalism. So even when I’d moved to voting solely for Democrats —mostly for aesthetic reasons tbh—I spent most the two years between 9/11 and the invasion and fallout thinking “well gee whiz they clearly know things we don’t and surely they wouldn’t just cook this up whole cloth. It’s just been eXeCuTeD pOoRlY”.

What a fucking rube. The absolute state of public school history classes in this country.

(Re - The invasion of Iraq was the turning point in my radicalization from a somewhat apolitical former conservative toward a progressive. So, thanks, GWB)

I'll admit being the first black national security advisor, chairman of JCOS, and secretary of state are important, and, according to the former State Department employees I argued with yesterday, he "modernized" the joint; but fuck him and fuck these people who accused me of lacking nuance.

*Black

(public school history classes and a compliant housebroken MSM)

robin wright’s take too, also apparently a very nice guy! she stumbles over cliched reverence for his path like only a white liberal could

https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/colin-powell-the-humble-american

After Bush was reëlected, in 2004, Powell drew up a list of things he wanted to work on during the second term. He took it with him when he was summoned to the White House. He never had a chance to explain it, he later told me. Bush blindsided Powell by announcing that he had just asked Condoleezza Rice to serve as his next Secretary of State. Powell had been fired. He was clearly stung. It was an ignoble end to a lifetime of public service.

Wait -- so he was fired? How did I not know this? This makes him more repugnant. I thought he'd resigned.

Apropos of nothing, did anyone go from opposing the war at the start to enthusiastically supporting it?

Colin Powell lol jk

no joke, him signing on was really key for me (and clearly a lot of people, which the Bush admin and pro-War media leaned on hard obv) initially thinking that It Just Has to be Done

Sorry I fired you, guy

https://www.bushcenter.org/about-the-center/newsroom/press-releases/2021/10/statement-by-president-george-w-bush-on-colin-powell.html