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February 08, 2004

A little perspective on war justifications

Making the Facts Fit the Case for War
By RICHARD GOODWIN

CONCORD, Mass.

In 1846 President James Polk announced that Mexican troops had fired on American soldiers on American soil, and he took the country to a war that eventually gained it California, New Mexico and Arizona. Was the disputed soil ours? Probably not. Did Polk distort the information he had? Almost certainly. He wanted the territory, and he needed a war to get it.

A first-term representative warned that if you "allow the president to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion . . . you allow him to make war at pleasure." For these words, Abraham Lincoln received the usual reward of political courage: he forfeited any chance of a return to Congress and was retired to private life for more than a decade. (Although he would do quite well after that.)

Our current dispute over the intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq seems to be yet another illustration of this eternal principle: presidents and other decision makers usually get the intelligence they want. This doesn't mean that intelligence reports should be ignored, but that they must be viewed with skepticism. And in my years in government service, I had the misfortune to see desire win out over skepticism too many times.

Posted by P6 at February 8, 2004 10:17 AM
Trackback URL: http://www.niggerati.net/mt/mt-tb.cgi/290
Comments

I am incredulous as I watch this clown (Bush) on Meet the Press this morning. November cannot come soon enough.

Posted by Kamau at February 8, 2004 10:35 AM

I didn't even watch it. I may read the transcripts but what's the point?

The justifications shift and get weaker and weaker, By the time November comes around, he'll be saying the war was justified because Saddam tried to kill his daddy.

Posted by P6 at February 8, 2004 10:46 AM

As long as he doesn't start saying that the war was justified because God told him to do it.

Posted by Al-Muhajabah at February 8, 2004 03:05 PM

As long as he doesn't start saying that the war was justified because God told him to do it.

Again.

Posted by P6 at February 8, 2004 08:41 PM

LOL, yeah there is that report that he already said it.

Posted by Al-Muhajabah at February 9, 2004 02:08 AM