History views- Long
Abe did what every president before and scince has done to justify warfare when the powers felt it was needed. Take the moral high ground. "remember the maine" , there is genocide in Kosolvo( SP?), "protect kuwati ciitzens" , "protect saudi citizens", "fight terrorism" , "find WMD", "keep communism from spreading".
I reality it was for the interests of the united states. The best thing is to hope that they have the secrets, the right secrets and that the correct decision is made. If you look at some of the examples. The spanish american war was fought over a suspect sinking of a US warship with almost or no american english speakers on board. It put paid to the spanish empire, and established the us as the imperial power in south america. We cooperated with the un on the peacekeeping mission to an area with serious ethnic tension, we did not do it right, more locals may have died due to our intervention than otherwise ( a good idea if iran and Iraq were fighting maybe). Kuwait citizens are all relatives of one family. You can not find a more clueless set of do - nothings anywhere. Most people living in kuwait were guest workers. You could put all of the "citizens" of kuwait up in hotel for the rest of thier life for cheaper than desert storm. But then there is the OIL. Also Iraq was threatening the saudi border. You would not like saudis- I think that basically the contry consists of the Saud family, and thier vassals. If you look at their way of life no one would willingly risk thier life if they kew that the saudi's will continue to mutilate little girls sexually. Back to OIL. OBTW saudi citizens are the #1 supporter of Bin Laden and Al Quida. If we had done the right thing and kept our word there may not have been a entire region that hates us. We supported a free Kurdistan when it suited us. When turkey, iran or iraq made apologies or accomodations the "freedom fighters" were left high and dry. A fair weather freind for the united states. To the people in the region a faithless liar who will give you stingers one month and tell turkey your base camps locations the next. A lot of people have been killed for that. - Including a few thousand American citizens in thier offices. Still the cleanup had to be done, if they end up with a stable prosperous goverment that still dislikes us OK, as long as they don't try to kill us. I do not hink anyone is really interested in a free kurdistan- except the kurds. I would not want them as enemies. Getting rid of a Mini- Hitler and his government is also a good thing and in our interests. And last- Vietnam Good idea- corrupted into a lousy policy. Was supposed to be good for us to keep communism from spreading- Mistakes are made, you can not tell those decision makers they were wrong, they used what they had including brutal corrupt goverments that make saddam look like shangri-la. ( But they were OUR *******s).
Moral High ground is BS but it has been the oil of diplomacy and war for a long time. Bare truth does not always work To peraphrase the above----"South america is OURS " ," I want to Impress my UN buddies/Leave a legacy besides a BJ ", "I want the California way of life to continue -OIL" , "OIL" , " there are some people that hate us- they need to be DEAD" , " We need to put a hit out on this Mini Hitler" , "Killing people in southeast asia is better than the NUKES flying from/against the soviets"