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May 13, 2004
Pick a Rationale, Any Rationale

A thesis study by a student at the University of Illinois finds that between September 12, 2001 and October 11, 2002, there were twenty-seven -- count 'em -- twenty-seven different rationales for war with Iraq floated the Bush administration, Congress and the media.

All but four of the rationales originated from the Bush White House.

"Largio identified include everything from the five front-runners -- war on terror, prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, lack of weapons inspections, removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, Saddam Hussein is evil, to the also-rans -- Sen. Joe Lieberman's "because Saddam Hussein hates us," Colin Powell's "because it's a violation of international law," and Richard Perle's "because we can make Iraq an example and gain favor within the Middle East."

source

Wow. With that many reasons to get rid of that guy, it's truly a wonder that the entire world wasn't just going NUTS to get in there and get him, isn't it? I mean, I can see not agreeing with one or two good rationales, but twenty-seven? The world community must really be out to lunch.

Or...

Someone was really desperate to find a reason -- any reason -- to start a war with Iraq and every time one of their reasons started to fall apart, they came up with a new one.

Which seems more likely to you?

N.B. -- this study only goes up to October of 2002. How many new reasons have we heard in the past 18 months? Saddam supports gay marriage! Saddam is running a child pornography ring! Saddam ate my daughter! He cut me off on I-5! He took a piss on the frickin' Lincoln Memorial for god's sake!

Posted by ahecht at May 13, 2004 7:44 PM
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