veritas makes it clear to Jimmah

veritas on Jimmy Carter's "Today Show" appearance -- Part One

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6138962/

"Well, the world is safer without Saddam. Certainly the people of Iraq are better without Saddam. I never have believed that Saddam Hussein was a direct threat to the security of the United States or Great Britain or China or Japan or Australia."
~~ Jimmy Carter

Jimmy, go to Barnes and Noble and buy an atlas of the world. Have someone point out the various Middle Eastern nations that supply the oil that is imperative to all modern economies. No, not "just to make a buck." I won't let you try to twist the topic and wrap yourself in your usual false idealism. But supplying the oil to keep us all fed. To provide the sterile surgical instruments we need. To heat our homes [to the temperature we need, not the one you want to dictate, thank you very much]. To keep our Navy at sea, protecting the whole world's commerce. To give us lights that extend the productive day.

Check that Atlas -- you'll see that a huge part of the whole world's oil supply is in countries that actually border on Iraq! More is in nearby countries. Saddam, with his history of attacking his neighbors; with his history of weapons development; with his history of ballistic-missile deals with North Korea; with his history of holocaust against his nation's people; with his devastation of Iraq's economy; with his history of obstructing UN inspections; with his history of attacking the coalition overflights that he had agreed to accept [well over two thousand attacks, IIRC] -- yep, Saddam's Iraq was indistinguishable from Monaco or the British Virgin Islands. No wonder he made so much off tourism.

"It was false to state that Saddam Hussein had a vast store of weapons of mass destruction or that Iraq was a direct threat to the security of the United States."

So the huge WMD inventories documented by the UN inspectors were what -- desert mirages? A plot by Saddam to draw himself into another war? A conspiracy by the inspectors to extend their cushy jobs? But -- I thought UN inspectors were infallible?

The WMDs existed. That's fact. And they don't just go away -- any more than nations dedicated to butchering Americans just "go away." At least, not until we drop some advanced weapons on them.

"The war has been unnecessary."

OK, you've made an assertion. Any supporting evidence? Jimmy? Yoo-hoo?

Are we to believe that 12 years of UN dithering, and 17 pointless UN Security Council "resolutions" [how inapt a word is that?], were a policy that was working to eliminate Saddam's threats to the region? Is that why it was "unnecessary"?

Or because the UN, the IAEA, and your plan in North Korea worked out so well in containing another nut case, "proving" the power of talk?

Is that why fighting Saddam has been unnecessary?

Or -- because the Iraqi people just don't matter?