I think that the case for war in Iraq has been poorly made. This is a rare example where I have something to add to a Nelson Ascher post (via Amritas). Nelson says:
That’s in a way the coalition’s strategy too. There were many reasons to invade Iraq, from the WMDs that are being slowly found to Saddam’s links to Al Qaeda, links about which what we know is already enough to be considered a casus belli. Obviously, with time we’ll know more about both things. But the geo-strategic reasons were even more important: after all Iraq has borders with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran, none of which could have been invaded as easily, quickly and legitimately. Besides, Iraq was a good place from were to scare other governments in the region, that is, the pour encourager les autres factor.
The real reason that the US went to war in Iraq is all of the above (plus of course, the humanitarian reasons). But most of all it’s because the American public woke up to the fact that terrorism is a real and immediate danger. Not a nuisance, and not just a problem for foreign countries. And potentially, not just from Al Qaeda. Other openly hostile entities threaten the US with terrorism, and among them were Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.
The connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda is not direct. The connection is that they were both hostile to the US and both open advocates of terrorism.
Posted by David Boxenhorn at June 15, 2004 11:50 AM