[Peace-discuss] Bad craziness in DC

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Each of the clowns deciding to invade Iraq is madder than the last.
Here's the wretched Cheney giving a speech to the VFW.  It was summarized
on NPR as saying the the US cannot wait for proof that Iraq has a nuclear
weapon -- we must strike now.  Cheney's argument is barely coherent -- but
it is vicious and quite dangerous.  --CGE]


(Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney called on Monday for a liberated
Iraq, saying now not later is the time for a pre-emptive strike against
President Saddam Hussein.

"As former secretary of state (Henry) Kissinger recently stated, the
imminence of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the huge
dangers it involves, the rejection of a viable inspection system and the
demonstrated hostility of Saddam Hussein combine to produce an imperative
for pre-emptive action," he told a veterans group.

"I am familiar with the arguments against taking action in the case of
Saddam Hussein. Some concede that Saddam is evil, power hungry and a
menace, but that until he crosses the threshold of actually possessing
nuclear weapons we should rule out any pre-emptive action," Cheney said.

"That logic seems to me to be deeply flawed. The argument comes down to
this: Yes, Saddam is as dangerous as we say he is, we just need to let him
get stronger before we do anything about it," he said. "Yet, if we did
wait until that moment, Saddam would simply be emboldened and it would
become even harder for us to gather friends and allies to oppose him."

In Afghanistan, he said, "the world has seen that America acts not to
conquer, but to liberate? We would act in that same spirit after a regime
change in Iraq.

"With our help, a liberated Iraq can be a great nation once again," Cheney
told a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"What we must not do in the face of a mortal threat is to give in to
wishful thinking or wilful blindness. We will not simply look away, hope
for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to
resolve," Cheney said in his speech.

"As President George W. Bush has said, time is not on our side.
Deliverable weapons of mass destruction in the hands of a terror network,
or a murderous dictator, or the two working together, constitutes as grave
a threat as can be imagined. The risk of inaction are far greater than the
risk of action," he added.

Bush is determined to carry out U.S. policy calling for the ouster of the
Iraqi leader, whom the U.S. president has called a menace to the region
with a determination to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction...

  ==============================================================
  C. G. Estabrook
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign [MC-190]
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana IL 61801 USA
  office: 217.244.4105 mobile: 217.369.5471 home: 217.359.9466  
  academic: <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu> 
  business: <cge at shout.net>
  ===============================================================