You are a meanie.

I've given small kids high fives and met with servicemen and even hugged black people, so that proves I'm nice. No wait, I don't think I've ever hugged a black person, but I've tried to-- they just keep running away. Anyway, I'm really, really nice.

>> Really, does anyone disagree that SH would have tried to make himself a threat again if he had the ability?

Berkeley NC is admitting that Saddam was NOT a threat. He's not a threat, so we invade. There's logic to this madness.

>> The U.S. invasion was the only thing that prevented the lifting of the sanctions

Hate to be technical, but the US invasion was the only thing that LED TO THE LIFTING of the sanctions. Now Iraq is free to get all the WMDs it wants. (Which I assume it is doing, right under the nose of the most ineffective occupying power ever.)

>> the U.S. invasion prevented acquisition and use of WMD by Saddam Hussein

Are we taking about the same Saddam who had spent the last 10 years getting rid of his WMD programs. Or some other Saddam, like what's his name? Oh yes, Musharraf. That guy loves WMDs!

Bonus question: Why did Bush kick out the UN inspectors when they were asking for more time? Could it be it's because they reported the absence of WMDs in Iraq?

Yes, inspections, Berkeley, remember the inspections?

Not to mention that 'arming yourself' is not the same as 'making yourself a threat'.

Not to mention that the 'badness' of men (in this context) has to be heavily factored by their ability to exercise their 'badness'; that is: a 'mildly bad' (or even merely obtuse) guy with 10,000 nuclear missiles is a lot 'worse' than, perhaps, an 'extremely bad' one but with only a few canisters of mustard gas.

...the U.S. invasion prevented acquisition and use of WMD by Saddam Hussein, a man worse than the looniest dreams about the man who currently resides in the White House.

So we should invade Canada, Lithuania, Australia and many other countries because they could aquire devistating weapons (DW). Better acronym than WMD?

The point being we shouldn't invade a country because they may become a threat to US. Pretty simple really.

That first comment was so funny. Didn't know Cheney had such a sense of humor.

I think that Bernard struck at the heart of teh stupid before I even got up this morning. However, I have a nominee for the portion of the comment which demonstrates the most exemplary level of obliviousness:

"What? Countries would violate U.N. orders? THE HORROR!"

to Berkeley Non-conformist: Do you mean, like, the U.S.?

Folks like 'Berkeley non-Conformist' need to get it through their heads that the invasion of Iraq was the single stupidest bit of US policy ever .. by a wide margin. That this conclusion is never going away.

It was also immoral, but the stunning stupidity of those who wanted the war to happen is one thing that will stick in Western history books.

Since they were stupid, people are going to call them stupid. Convincing himself that he is smart by using a Latin phrase doesn't change a damn thing.

I have this image in my head of him in a fancy restaurant with a group of people and all them nodding their heads on how outrageous and unfair it is that the liberals are using ad hominem remarks about their brilliant, well-meant invasion. Then they quaff their wine, laugh and leave a tiny tip because the waiter looked at them funny.

--
btw, I think it goes even further than stupidity with a significant percentage of these guys. Notice the parallel to how bullies act in elementary-school. After they intimidate and beat up other kids, one excuse bullies invariably use (in the times they are caught) is 'he called me a name'. It doesn't matter to the bullies whether the name-calling came after or before their violence, saying they were called a name is the last refuge of the bully.

I am not sure how far this parallel goes. But I am offended by 'Berkeley non-conformist's complaint that he was called a name, while arguing for a policy that has caused so much real suffering.

@Henry:
>Folks like 'Berkeley non-Conformist' need to get
>it through their heads that the invasion of Iraq
>was the single stupidest bit of US policy ever ..
>by a wide margin.

Some people are incapable of understanding complex ideas such as what goes on in foreign relations; situations that have all manner of shades of gray, nuance, etc. It sounds like BnC is just one such person.

He is probably not a bad person, just doesn't have the ability to understand what is going on. For people like him, "We fight them there, so we don't have to fight them there" makes perfect sense.

Thinking that you can get BnC to understand that the "War On Terrah" is a boondogle is about as easy (and possible) as getting an elephant to drive a Mini Cooper.

The U.S. invasion was the only thing that prevented the lifting of the sanctions formally

This one reminds me of the argument I occasionally hear from capital punishment advocates, that if we don't top convicts they might serve out their sentence and be released on parole or as the result of a successful appeal.

The ad hominem part seems pretty stupid, as does the fact that I can't tell what the comment actually responded to. The first two sentences look like a response to some other post, perhaps one inside the author's head. Oh, and then we have his Matrix-philosophy definition of the word "know". (Dude, maybe the whole Iraq war is an illusion created by the worst WMD of all!) But I particularly like the way he ignored the role of inspections entirely. You may recall that inspections more or less dismantled Saddam's entire weapons program after the first Gulf War. Getting the inspectors back in the country would therefore seem to remove the need for military action. (This of course sounds like Kerry's stated reason for giving the President the authority to threaten war. Except it seemed obvious from the start that W would abuse that authority, so I don't know what Kerry was thinking.)

(Dude, maybe the whole Iraq war is an illusion created by the worst WMD of all!)

Damn, now I'm getting chills.

When I was about 12 I wondered if WWII was just a hoax (Holocaust denial was nothing compared to that). My reasoning--why would a bunch of perfect strangers all over the world try to kill each other? I thought about this for about three seconds and then thought "Well, why not?". And never looked back.

Now you've got me thinking again.

Stupidity is really very intellectually stimulating, in a pointless and moronic way, of course.

Actually, the US has done stupid stuff before the Iraq war and will probably do stupid stuff after it. I just finished reading Tuchman's March of Folly. What fun. I particularly liked the parallels between how US officials behaved in Vietnam to how British officials behaved during the american war of independence.

"Hey, reality called, he's sorry about those mean things he said, but he think he can make the relationship work again."
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!!ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!