For a couple of days now I've been meaning to reiterate that for some reason we keep missing the boat. We know that the current occupant of the White House never tells the truth and yet we keep taking his word for things.
What now, you ask? Well, there's that little word "preemption" which he claimed applied to the incursion or assault on Iraq. And, because there are some people who are in violent disagreement with the whole notion of preemption or, rather, because they objected to the example they were provided, hardly anyone seems to have noticed that the assault on Iraq was NOT an example of preemption at all.
It might have been, if the WMD were actually in place and set to go off at any minute. But they weren't; so it wasn't. What was a preemptive program was the sanctions regime and interdiction of trade, as well as the fly-overs and no-fly zone, that had kept Saddam Hussein's military in check.
The only reason America was able to get away with the assault on Iraq without causing a globally disasterous conflagration was because Iraq DIDN'T have any nuclear weapons or missiles loaded with chemicals and biologicals and set to go off automatically whenever the control mechanisms were disturbed.
In other words, if the administration hadn't been sure there was nothing to fear, they wouldn't have dared to lauch the attack. Which, of course, sends the signal that the only deterrent to American aggression is a lethal arsenal that is well protected.
Who knows how long it is going to take for America to reestablish the trust and confidence of other nations? Are we really going to believe that God led him to get us into such a mess?