Why Did We Go To War In Iraq?

Today, I got on a mailing list. This is funny for me, as me and mailing lists don't go together too well. I am on about 7 other lists, most of which I never even look at. I even run a mailing list of my own, although I haven't mailed anything in, oh, about a year and a half.

But this one showed promise on the very first email I received. It pointed me towards an article I never would have read otherwise. It was an article by Ben Domench in which he makes the argument that the war in Iraq was justified on moral grounds. This is, of course, the same reason I supported the war.

I made the argument verbally here, here, and here. I made the argument in via images here and here.

No matter what ever comes from the WMD hunt, whether they're found or not, it is nearly impossible to argue with the humanitarian basis for the war. How many more Iraqis would have died had Saddam still been in power? How many more would have been tortured? How many more would be living under absolute oppression and tyranny?

I spend a lot of my time during the day, arguing many of these points with a knee-jerk Bush hater at work. I always love when he says, "But think about how many Americans have died over there!"

He is also a moral relavist. According to him, no one nationality or group should be accorded more respect or consideration than another. Yet he values American lives more than Iraqi when it's convenient and equally when it's not.

This is, I think, why it is so easy to refute the argument that there was no humanitarian justification for going into Iraq. It is inconsistent with the general position of the anti-Bush liberal crowd.

Bush has gone on the offensive to remind people that we went into Iraq for more reasons than WMDs. Condi has also begun reminding people that it was the threat of WMDs, not their actual existence, that was another reason.

This is going to be a key topic in the upcoming election. Don't forget the real reasons why the war was justified and keep reminding those who do.