Conversation-inspired Post on the Iraq War
I had a great open discussion with what has to be the coolest group of church people in the world. While our opinions differ, we always walk away with love and respect for one another. What could be better?

Anyway, lunch conversation led me to go back and look at some of the discussion that took place before the war that President Obama called a war of leisure...a total insult to all of those who have died. The same kind of discussions were held prior to the "war for fun" and you can read a bit of history and public opinion as the BBC asked "Can War with Iraq Be Avoided?"

What possessed George W. Bush and Tony Blair (unless Blair was just a blind puppet, who was miffed that Saddam had threatened Bush senior) to lead the rest the war to military action against Saddam Hussein? What were the discussions taking place? Did it happen overnight that W. Bush decided "there's war in them thar hills!!!"? Was the world standing by with mouths agape as Bush came into office and immediately decided we must have democracy in Iraq because God told him too? Was the U.N. filing resolutions against Bush to stop him from entering Iraq? The answers to these questions is actually simple for those who were paying close attention and who have long memories.

See, all of these suggestions sound a bit unrealistic, if not outright silly at face value. Perhaps I'm a bit jaded by my personal experience in the first U.S. war against Iraq. I know how afraid I was of Saddam Hussein using chemical or biological weapons when I was sent to Saudi Arabia as part of a medical unit with the Marine Corps 1st FSSG. I remember taking the antibiotics that made me sick. I remember taking the prophylaxis for nerve agent that made me disoriented and gave me the shakes. So, we knew he had the weapons, as do the people who say: "Sure he had them, we gave them to him." Can we have it both ways?

I also remember how much I did not want any other young man or woman to be put in the position I was in. As John McCain, who was FOR action in Iraq understood: no on who has been to a war wants someone else to go. I was so frustrated with Saddam Hussein playing games. He had been playing these games throughout the Clinton administration, with little consequence except a stack of Useless Nations (U.N.) resolutions. I'm still not sure how 17 resolutions amount to a rush to war.

If the Bush family was a but of southern, redneck religious zealots then action could have been taken in 1991. Finally, let's say that W. Bush was actually insane enough to drag this nation into a second war, having already committed to Afghanistan, because someone threatened to kill his father. Does that mean Britain's Tony Blair thought it a good idea to send British men and women off to die for the same cause? It's silly.

So, as the BBC asks, could war have been avoided? Sure, all Saddam Hussein had to do was either produce all records on his WMD program or allow U.N. inspectors to continue their work unabated.

I'd like the great omniscient Mr. Obama to stop pretending to be all wise. For God's sake he was just a state Senator in Illinois with no experience leading anything other than a law journal. That hardly qualifies him for being an expert on anything, especially foreing policy. Then again, he parlayed that dirth of experience into the highest office in the world. The mind boggles. Sigh.

Pardon this quick 15 minute rant if it rambled a bit.