Soccer Dad

Fooling with tools

Sen. Obama from the debate Tuesday night.

I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us.

The United States did not attack Iraq because of 9/11. Or not exclusively. This little tidbit is a reminder that Sen. Obama's worldview is much different from that of George W. Bush or John McCain.

The reason why the Bush administration - with overwhelming Congressional support - decided to attack Iraq was because Iraq under Saddam had failed to come clean about its WMD program in accord with UN resolutions. Since the United States was uncertain, the government felt - especially in the wake of 9/11 - that it couldn't take and find out that there Saddam had a WMD program when a SCUD landed in the United States or in the land of an ally loaded with such a warhead. Saddam also was giving aid to numerous terror groups. And despite what the MSM would have you believe, he did have ties to Al Qaeda, even if he had no role in 9/11.

But here's the part that bothers me even more. One of the mantras of the Obama campaign is that he will use all the (presumably diplomatic) tools at his disposal to prevent Iran from going nuclear. The assumption is that these diplomatic tools will be effective. But Sen. Obama never seems to consider what would be if diplomacy fails.

Sen. Obama's implication is that President Bush failed to use all the diplomatic tools available to him to bring Iraq into compliance. President Bush did try, but he was undermined (as Pres Clinton was before him somewhat) by countries like France, Germany and Russia that had commercial dealings with Saddam and were thus willing to subvert the UN resolutions that were supposed to bring him in line.

Rather than take a chance, President Bush chose to take action. Sen. Obama claims that a nuclear Iran is "intolerable." But if it becomes inevitable because diplomacy fails will Sen. Obama continue using those tools? Or will he act?

Related from Anne Bayefsky:

Wake up. There is a genocidal maniac on the verge of reaching the point of no return in his ability to make a nuclear weapon. A fanatic with the stated ambition to murder five million Jews living in Israel -- to start. A villain who has already funded and armed a terrorist war against the Jewish state that in 2006 forced one-third of Israel's population to live underground for almost a month. In other words, an individual who is ready, willing, and able to give the nuclear trigger to a terrorist group -- to terrorists who cannot be bargained with because they prefer their death to your freedom. As for the suggestion that the Mullahs are more powerful and nicer guys, the millions brutalized and subjugated in Iran tell a different story.

h/t LGF

Crossposted on Yourish.