POLITICS - Cole'D

Occasionally, I'll read some of my posts and note that my views on Bush's wars can seem a little schizophrenic. How can I hate Bush, and yet, be supportive of the overthrow of the Hussein regime? I've been thinking about writing a post that sums up some of my views... until I read this post a Juan Cole's site. My split is probably around 95/5 instead of his 90/10, but I agree with the thrust of his post.

(Go read the whole thing!)

So, my position is that getting rid of Saddam was a good thing; and that US troops deserve credit for the efforts they are making to restore security and root out Baath remnants in Iraq; but at the same time, I believe the war was illegitimate in international law and contravened the UN Charter, and that many of the actions of the US in Iraq contravene the international law of occupation. In the end, I think the war was unwise and not justified by the arguments that Bush put forward. But now that it has been fought I want to hold the administration's feet to the fire about not creating a mess and just walking away from it. (That was tried in Afghanistan by Bush senior and it gave us the Taliban and al-Qaeda).