The Inevitable Iraqi Invasion

The guys at QandO are discussing the inevitability of the invasion of Iraq. Specifically the belief within the administration that war was unavoidable. They do a fair bit of work to point out that this isn't the case and link to others who have similar arguments. I suppose all this breaks down to the lefts allegations that having such a belief would make the President and his staff warmongers.

Frankly, I don't blame the administration even if they had such a belief. When you look at US-Iraqi relations since the first Gulf War, they aren't exactly friendly. When 9/11 occurred I was pretty sure that after Afghanistan had been dealt with, Iraq would be next. Why? Because there were too many good reasons to do it. The inevitability of war was not warmongering. It was sober judgement.

The problem with Iraq was:

• Saddam Hussein
• Ties to terrorist groups
• A long history of WMD development
• No weapons inspections for years
• Increasing international pressure to release economic sanctions
• Repeated attempts to shootdown US aircraft enforcing the no-fly zones
• Prolonged drain on the US military services from required containment activities
• Growing US/Islamic tensions because of prolonged US presence in the Gulf

With 9/11 and the US moving to wartime footing, the question became when not if we were going to have to react militarily.