Was The War In Iraq A Mistake?

01 February 2010 | By Sonja in Editorials, Politics, Sonja, TN Blog

Last week, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave impressive testimony about the real decisions and real consequences world leaders faced in contemplating the powers of Iraqui leader Sadam Hussein in 2001. There isn’t an informed American who wouldn’t

The Truth?

have preferred not to take that journey. Blair shared insights and information and most of all reminders, of the psychotic and mass-murdering history of this dictator. The Wall Street Journal Online recounts his testimony here before an inquiry in Great Britain and offers perspectives that are valuable to revisit.

President George Bush became a lightening rod because of his swift, focused commitment to the ouster of Hussein. His strengths were always in personal conviction, not communication. History though, I believe, will judge his response to the threats to America’s security, and to the security and stabilization of the world as responsible. Were there other paths? Should we have simply invaded Afghanistan instead? Should we have stayed home and protected our own borders?

Bush did what every president must do. He led with the information he had. His choices were unique to virtually any other President of the United States since Roosevelt. Only the threats facing Americans were not on distant shores, they were on the streets of our own cities. Voters on both sides of the aisle can make solid cases for staying out of Iraq, but no one can deny the obvious. Sadam Hussein would have likely opened the borders of Iraq to many enemies of the United States and created a nationwide terrorist motel.

Map of Headaches

To view a map of the region is to feel the imminent dangers to the United States. No imagination required. Iran and Pakistan and Afghanistan to the East. Syria to the Northwest. Kuwait vulnerable as ever. The world’s oil supply ( of course) wrapped up in Iraq and Saudia Arabia and other neighboring producing countries. Finally, Israel, always the ultimate defense issue on the table, a sitting duck.

Blair and the Wall Street Journal take a worthwhile look back.