Iraq and al-Qaeda

The drum-beat of instant revisionism carries on at the BBC, CBC and PBS. A pathetic game of "gotcha!" is underway as the same intelligence which convinced the United Nations to uphold an inspections regime is now used to suggest the United States was mistaken to liberate the people of Iraq. One mass grave of children buried with their stuffed animals is more justification than I can imagine. Justification, in fact, is not the issue. The issue is how we can possibly justified having done nothing sooner.

How many rationalizations were offered to do nothing? One of the most irritating to me was the all-too-clever sounding assertion that purported links between al-Qaeda cultists and Iraqi fascists must be false given the opposing nature of these two death cults. The fires were still burning as Slate ran a piece dismissing the possibility of collaboration amongst America's enemies:

Before the world will enlist against Hussein, American officials will need to prove that he was behind Sept. 11. To do that, they must find stronger evidence than Mylroie, Woolsey, and others have presented so far.

In the wake of fascist defeat it seems there is no atrocity which cannot be excused by clever-sounding, morally bankrupt legalisms. WMDs were not sufficient justification for military intervention in the minds of those who supported the fascists before the war. Discovery of WMDs would not justify the war to those people. Even use of WMDs against coalition forces would not have justified the need for war to those people. It is a sickening farce for opponents of the war to present us with the unending, gloating spectacle of finger-pointing even as the victims of Hussein's regime are dug up in their thousands.

An American federal appelate judge now claims to have proof of the ongoing relationship between bin Laden and Hussein (via lgf). I was already convinced. Here is some suggestive reading: this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.

Now, after that, there were people who argued, well, these two ideologies are too different, they'll never get together. The Secretary made clear that we thought they were bound by a common hatred; that is what brought them together. And I think that's really what you did have bin Laden confirming today in this tape. In the tape, he says it doesn't matter if people are socialist, we're going to fight together with them to destroy everything that we can.

My personal favourite is this.

Posted by the Flea at July 11, 2003 12:46 PM