The Iraq War retrospective Thread

[kandrathe]

A nation has the right to wage war only to protect itself or its allies. Anything else is a crime. That is one of the basis of the UN. What you are completely overlooking here is that the USA has no jurisdiction in the international arena except as a member of the UN. What we did was outside the rules of law, and that makes it criminal. If the world at large, as represented by the UN, thought that "Saddam's regime made actions that brought about the need for war", then by all means. We had neither the necessity, nor the justification, nor the right to do so unilaterally.

That would depend on your adherence to the tenet that the UN is the arbiter in international disputes, rather than what it appears which is a political forum for lots of talk, with very little walk. If a consensus of people involved with national security decide that the solution to a national problem is war, then UN support would be nice, but while we hold the veto power on the Security Council, unnecessary. Technically, the two factors that need to align are convincing the President to lead it, and convincing Congress to fund it. Both of which happened. I still think there is more under the covers here, like this which in hindsight is not a justification, but rather sheds light on the level of suspicion on the collusion between various international actors involved with Iraq. You have top Iraqi official meeting with Osama Bin Ladin in Khartoom. You have AQ Khan brokering nuclear weapons designs to Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and anyone else who could come up with the $5 million dollar down payment. You have Ansar Al-Islam base in northern Iraq built and supplied by the Iraqi regime. You have Fedayeen Al Saddam recruiting jihadists from the entire Islamic world to train as an ultra nationalist subversive brute squad. You have Iraq attempting to kill a former US president (which in an of itself is an act of war.)

Another factor to consider in the aftermath of the war was the rapid involvement of Iran in calling for all Shia to repel the infidels. Iranian cleric, Kadhem al-Husseini al-Haeri, issued a religious edict and distributed to Shiite mullahs in Iraq, calling on them "to seize the first possible opportunity to fill the power vacuum in the administration of Iraqi cities." The edict, or fatwa, issued April 8, 2003, showed that Shiite clerics in Iraq are receiving significant direction from Iran. The edict said that Shiite leaders have to "seize as many positions as possible to impose a fait accompli for any coming government." "People have to be taught not to collapse morally before the means used by the Great Satan if it stays in Iraq," the fatwa read. "It will try to spread moral decay, incite lust by allowing easy access to stimulating satellite channels and spread debauchery to weaken people's faith." The fatwa also instructed the cleric's followers to "raise people's awareness of the Great Satan's plans and of the means to abort them." On April 7, the day American troops effectively toppled Hussein's government by seizing its main seats of power in Baghdad, al-Haeri sent a handwritten letter to the city of Najaf, appointing Moktada al-Sadr as his deputy in Iraq. Haeri wrote: "We hereby inform you that Mr. Moktada al-Sadr is our deputy and representative in all fatwa affairs."