Wrong, the evidence is the repeated attacks by Iraqi Baathists/Taliban and foreign insurgents. If they weren't there, we wouldn't be either. Quid pro quo.
What gets me so upset when I read things like this is this notion that we went into Iraq with no provocation. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The 911 Commission report ties al-Qaeda to Saddam in several areas. It is documented that, far from finding no WMD's we found enough Sarin gas to kill 250,000 people, and reference strains of Bioterror weapons in the hands of the guy who could make the weapons. There is also evidence that the WMD's everyone was looking for were sent to Iran and Syria. This stuff gets mentioned on the back pages of the newspaper once then forgotten in a blare of "NO WMD'S!!! BUSH LIED KIDS DIED!!!" blathering.
Then you never heard stories out of Israel? Or the story of the U.S.S. Cole? Or the first attempt to blow up the Twin Towers? Or Beiruit? We were the U.N. peacekeepers there, and all we have are dead Marines to show for it.
Hardly. What I think is your compassion for the innocent (a noble thing) has blinded you to other conciderations just as important.
Just as you have photos, I can show you a few photos of what we stopped by invading Iraq:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/Saddam-Chmical-Victims-03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/Saddam-Chmical-Victims-03.php&h=344&w=500&sz=21&tbnid=YIUCzuEPKHyoOM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=127&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSaddam%2Bvictims%2B%26svnum%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%26safe%3Doff
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://massgraves.info/4.jpg&imgrefurl=http://massgraves.info/p1.htm&h=199&w=300&sz=22&tbnid=bO379JW3oYagKM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=111&hl=en&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3DSaddam%2Bvictims%2B%26svnum%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3Dlang_en%26safe%3Doff
In the mass graves they found evidence of:
Medical experimentation
Beatings
Crucifixion
Hammering nails into the fingers and hands
Amputating the ***** or ******* with an electric carving knife
Spraying insecticides into a victim’s eyes
Branding with a hot iron
Committing rape while the victim’s spouse is forced to watch
Pouring boiling water into a ******
Nailing the tongue to a wooden board
Extracting teeth with pliers
Using bees and scorpions to sting naked children in front of their parents
I've seen video tape of Saddam himself taking a parents infant child away giving it to the crew of a helicopter, which flew up several hundred feet
and threw the baby out! It was the most horrifying thing I have
EVER seen, to watch the parents forced to witness their baby coming apart on impact.
Your next few paragraphs give you your own answer to this question, which is what I think you have been blinded to. It also makes it clear and very understandable why this happened.
Before I say anything else, I am very sorry for your loss.
What strikes me reading this is how very simular your loss and mine really are. Both your uncle and my cousin died trying to help their fellow man, and the blame for their deaths rightfully belongs to the bad guys. Those who fired the cruise missile that killed your uncle, and the ones that fired the missile that killed the people in Pakistan were trying to stop the same people who killed my cousin.
That isn't any easier to say than it is to hear. But the difficulty in hearing it doesn't change the fact that these people who fired those missiles thought they had the bad guys in their sites. They weren't aiming for the innocent, but for the guilty, and the fact they were so tragically wrong doesn't lessen the pain one bit. But it does highlight the difference between us and them; when this happens we admit we've done wrong, we feel remorse, and recriminate ourselves and try to make sure it doen't happen again.
The bad guys don't.
In their eyes, your uncle and those 14 civilians and my cousin all got what they deserve. No remorse, and no mercy for those loved ones who survive.
What makes it legal is the same thing that makes it tragic. Because if it weren't for the bad guys doing even worse, it wouldn't have happened at all.
Again, I am sorry for your loss. May *** be with you and yours.
Peace, Tom
