Re: a message to cindy sheehan
I'd be curious to see how things would be different now if we had done this. I don't mean to suggest that the war itself would necessarily be fought any differently, but public sentiment might be different -- although there are still some Bush apologists out there that think he spins gold when he talks, most of the country is starting to realize that he just spins, period. The constantly changing rationale for the war is wearing thin with moderates who had been giving Bush the benefit of the doubt.
In contrast, if we had gone in there primarily on the legimate basis that Saddam was a fucking monster, that he was constantly thumbing his nose at the rest of the world, and that regime change was in order, the message would not have needed to change along the way; although things aren't great there now, Bush could stick with the message that, "this will take time but it is important and we have to stay the course." I doubt Bush would be in the political quandry in which he currently finds himself -- people might be unhappy with the status of the war, but he'd likely still enjoy the image of an honest, straight-forward and trustworthy guy (which, let's face it, is Bush's strongest quality as a leader).
Of course, it appears that Bush and Blair recognized that "Saddam is a bad guy" would be a tough sell before the UNSC (see Downing Street Memos). It probably would have taken longer before we could convince the world that his unwillingness to cooperate was worthy of regime change -- perhaps, in that time, though, we could have caught Osama bin Laden.
Originally posted by Yao
In contrast, if we had gone in there primarily on the legimate basis that Saddam was a fucking monster, that he was constantly thumbing his nose at the rest of the world, and that regime change was in order, the message would not have needed to change along the way; although things aren't great there now, Bush could stick with the message that, "this will take time but it is important and we have to stay the course." I doubt Bush would be in the political quandry in which he currently finds himself -- people might be unhappy with the status of the war, but he'd likely still enjoy the image of an honest, straight-forward and trustworthy guy (which, let's face it, is Bush's strongest quality as a leader).
Of course, it appears that Bush and Blair recognized that "Saddam is a bad guy" would be a tough sell before the UNSC (see Downing Street Memos). It probably would have taken longer before we could convince the world that his unwillingness to cooperate was worthy of regime change -- perhaps, in that time, though, we could have caught Osama bin Laden.
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