GingerV,

Bless you!

I was concerned that I was about to be castigated for another interminable dissertation. It has also been many moons since I was last tasked with statistical analysis. Your response has comforted me on both points.

Lies, damned lies, and statistics, yes’m. I’m sure we can tend to this. I shall try to secure the measuring criteria used by each organization. I do believe that terrorist incidents are here recorded independently, thus 9/11 = 4. Let us not let the Palestinian attacks on Israel slip between the cracks of the debate. Terrorism is not an American problem, it is a World problem.

I’d like to review what may prove to be a point of contention between us

Reading your posts has left me with the impression that you believe the “Old Guard’s” (of which I would be assumed to be a member) position is that the justification for the overthrow of the Hussein regime was a natural consequence of the War on Terrorism.

That line goes, I believe, roughly that “there was some covert association between Hussein and bin Laden, and so by removing Hussein, bin Laden would be damaged, and anyway we should have taken Hussein out in 1991, so getting rid of the sonofabitch does the world a power of good anyway”. No?

Actually, my recollection of the events leading up to the Iraq regime change of March-April last year is that the armed conflict was justified by Iraq’s non-compliance with several UN resolutions. These related to the inability of UN verification of Iraq pledges to eliminate its programs to develop NBC munitions. Subsequent, very, very thorough searches failed to find any WMDs, and indeed it turned out that the programs which Mr. Hussein thought were in place, actually were being manipulated for the financial gain of various senior Iraqis. A bit embarrassing to Messrs Bush and Blair.

The argument for the invasion of Iraq was not based on the previously announced WOT by Bush, but on of the “clear and present danger” that Iraq presented to the world. I’m sure you recall the famous “15 minute” comment, and Secretary Powell’s satellite photographs? There was also a bit of a bother with allegations of HM government “sexing up” the Iraq dossier to “enhance” the case for war.

Where I am going with this line of argument is that there is no useful purpose served in arguing that “the invasion of Iraq did no good in the WOT”, as that was not the basis for the invasion. The reason that I have spent the time reviewing this is because I hope to avoid a debate about the invasion of Iraq last year defining or limiting the discussion of the WOT.

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Eudaimonia