Jewish World Review March 10, 2003 / 6 Adar II, 5763
Dan Abrams
The dishonest arguments against war with Iraq
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |
Democratic Representative and now
presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich
suggesting that oil is the driving force behind the
war. Others have suggested, it's Israel. Still,
others saying it's payback for Saddam's
assassination attempt on the president's father.
WELL ANYONE MAKING these allegations better
be willing to defend exactly what they're saying. They're
saying this administration is at the least morally corrupt, lying
to the American public and the world about their motives
and willing to have Americans die for that lie, and at worst,
that they're actually abhorrent criminals. That's absurd.
Look, this war is not an easy call.
Attacking Iraq without more international support may
be the wrong decision, may be a dangerous one, but a
questionable decision does not make it corrupt. To believe
these accusations about oil or payback is to suggest that
Saddam's weapons of mass destruction have no real
bearing on the decision to invade. And I think to deny that a
dangerous despot has those weapons is to deny reality.
The fact that Saddam has not accounted for hundreds
of known weapons of mass destruction is a serious issue,
not a straw man, not created by novelists in this
administration. It's real and it's dangerous. And yet, I was
one of the first to criticize the administration for trying to link
Iraq to al Qaeda. I still believe they undermine their
credibility by harping on that supposed connection, with
almost no evidence to back it up.
It's an argument that does not justify a war. But also,
doesn't justify calling the president a criminal. As they say in
the world of rap music, "let's keep it real." This is too
important for serious people to be making serious
allegations that cannot and should not be taken seriously.
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JWR contributor Dan Abrams anchors The Abrams Report, Monday through Friday from 6-7 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV. He also covers legal stories for NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Today and Dateline NBC. To visit his website, click here. Comment by clicking here.
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