Paying Attention, or Not

For John, BLUF:  Some just don't wish to understand.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Before we get into whether Professor Juan Cole is a real college professor or just a polemicist masquerading as a college professor to draw money from the University of Michigan and the Michigan taxpayers, I would like to clear up a couple of points:

1. Back in the day I was against the invasion.♠  I am a big believer in deterrence, although you have to be plain about it.
2. I am against Jeb Bush on principle.  There should be no dynasties in our Executive Office.  None, no matter the reason.
3. For this blog post I cheated and actually listened to the video clip, which Fox gives us here.
4. Senator Clinton and a couple of other Democrat Party Senators voted for the invasion, so it wasn't like President Bush was the only person so stupid he was duped.
5. I expect that I would be against an attack on Iran over its nuclear program.  They key is to (a) promise to turn their land into glass and (b) invite to our weaponeering program here in the States some of their key folks, so they can fully understand what nuclear weapons can, and cannot, do.

So, back to Mr Juan Cole, and his article in Nation of Change.  Apparently not having listened to the clip, or not having understood it, Professor Cole misses that Governor Bush says, given the circumstances, he would do it again, just like Senator Clinton.

On the other hand, knowing what we know now, no.

As for the Reagan Administration helping President Hussein♥ in his war with Iran, I think that might have been a balance of power kind of thing, after President Saddam Hussein stupidly started the war and then found that Iran was not a push over.

But, back to the issue, Professor Cole says:

Small men from small states routinely proclaim that the Unites States of America will go to war against whomever it pleases whenever it pleases without let or hindrance from those pesky international tribunals.

Maybe he was referencing the former Senator from Massachusetts, who said "we will go anywhere, pay any price….".

But, let us think about the run up to the invasion.  There was the belief that President Hussein was actually working on weapons of mass destruction and that no one wanted to wake up to a mushroom cloud near their residence.  As I said, I think deterrence was the better option, but others disagreed.  Then, I am sure, there were those who thought that Iraq represented a hope for democracy in the Middle East.  An educated population with a somewhat secular outlook.  Unfortunately, there was no Iraqi Konrad Adenauer.  And the Iraqi people were more divided than we realized.  And there was the desire to settle scores.  And the Kurds.  Those who held out hope for the Arab Spring should understand.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  For one thing, as someone said, "War is like childbirth.  The outcome is always uncertain."
♥  Didn't Professor Cole get the memo about using first names being insulting and denigrating, like when President Obama did it to Senator E Warren just recently?