Reader: The Reasons for War Were Clear

Reader DK writes:

I personally think the reasons for war with Iraq were clear and not oversold…I watched the speeches, watched and re-read Colin Powell's speech to the UN, and started studying up on the history of Iraq myself. I never really associated 9/11 with what we were about to do in Iraq and I don't recall any big moments when the administration over-sold that point. It was put into context several times, but I think the population latched onto that one out of ignorance. Which brings me to my next point. The population is ignorant and should therefore be blamed for their own ignorance. Sorry to put it bluntly but I don't think the administration could have done a better job explaining to everyman what the situation was/is and why/what we were going to do about it…I knew that we were capitalizing on the moment and acting in Iraq not because of some "smoking gun" but because we have been trying to do things in Iraq over the course of many administrations. Nothing has worked. Other plans have failed.

The Yellow Line responds: We at TYL still question whether the administration did enough to explain why the nation needed to militarily intervene in Iraq and not in any of the other countries that fit the same profile (namely Iran and North Korea). Without adequately explaining why Iraq was a unique situation, the administration left the question open to a lot of second-guessing.

Those that supported the war believed our motives just, but those that questioned the war invented all manner of rationales (i.e. we needed oil, Bush wanted to finish daddy’s war, it was a callous political stunt to cement power, etc.). While TYL rejects all the conspiratorial reasons for war offered up by the opposition, we still maintain that this administration should have done a much better job telling the American people why we were invading Iraq and not anywhere else.