re: #176 Rightwingconspirator

The deal the coalition signed on for was removal of Saddam from Kuwait, and the Arab partners specifically did not want us to go after Saddam. Right or wrong that was the deal from before the air assault. Of course we would have been a full decade ahead in dealing with the consequences.

It that is true, we should never have taken that deal. We went into Iraq the first time for the sake of our Arab “friends” who were scarred shitless of getting eaten by Saddam. We could have leveraged the Arabs more to do their part. Honestly, I find no particular moral distinction between Saudi Arabia and Saddam by any moral reckoning.

Both nations were unstable and disloyal allies. Both nations are brutal and dictatorial. Both are utterly backwards. Saddam truly was a monster. So are the Saudis. We could have just as easily said to the Saudis that if they did not play ball, we could happily deal with Saddam instead.

Now in a perfect world, we would not bother dealing with any of those thugs, because we would not burn oil.

It would indeed be technologically possible to do that, however the people in power believe that it is better for themselves to have Americans get sucked into wars over oil and to be forced to ally with medieval barbarians.