The U.S. war in Iraq was an illegal and unjustified use of unilateral American power, based on presidential lies and exaggerations about the threat to the United States posed by Iraq’s apparently nonexistent weapons and ties to terrorism. It has pushed Iraq into chaos, whose ultimate outcome is likely to be a civil war among its feuding ethnic blocs and the rise of an Iranian-style theocratic government led by militant Shiite clerics. In the process, President Bush has destroyed America’s prestige abroad, shattered its alliances, frittered away the goodwill toward the United States that emerged after 9/11 and established a precedent for preventive wars that can be used to justify aggressive military action in a dozen conflicts around the world.
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Here is what it does mean.
First, Saddam’s capture will present a significant political problem for Bush & Co. All by himself, Saddam can unravel the supposed mystery of Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction. Call him a liar, but on this subject he can tell the truth. Iraq’s WMD were virtually extinguished in 1991, and lingering remnants dealt with by UN inspectors in the early '90s. Already, according to Time, Saddam in captivity ridiculed the WMD issue. “Saddam was... asked whether Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction,” reported Time. "‘No, of course not,’ he replied, according to
official, ‘the U.S. dreamed them up itself to have a reason to go to war with us.’" In coming weeks, unless the United States manages to muzzle Saddam and suppress leaks—not likely—Saddam can highlight Bush’s prevarications on WMD and terrorism.
Second, it means that the United States and its puppet governing council in Iraq will have yet another showdown with the world community over Saddam’s trial. The United States and its allies would like a quick show trial and an execution; James Woolsey—the former CIA director and one of the leading advocates since the 1990s for war in Iraq—has already called for a hanging, and Ahmad Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress and the Pentagon’s chief Iraqi ally, says that preparations for a trial are already underway. But human rights groups, the UN and others in the world community will insist on a Milosevic-style international proceeding, sans death penalty.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/9607