Bush obliterates Obama and Clinton Iraq War arguments

As you no doubt have read, today is the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War.  CNN has reported a major anti-War protest in San Francisco that is resulting in threats of arrests along with a few people hauled in for obstructing traffic.  Chicago, D.C. and elsewhere have experienced similar protests.  Of course, nothing will change President Bush’s opinion of the Iraq War, in fact today he made a speech that obliterated the arguments of Democrats and Libertarians.

Bush said critics of the war — such as Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — “can no longer credibly argue that we are losing in Iraq, so now they argue the war costs too much.”

Well, I guess that says it all.  If President Bush says that there is no credible argument to be made against the war, then it must be so.   Ok, I’m obviously not serious here, but two other statements I take issue with:

“No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq,” the president said.

High cost in lives and “treasure”?  Who talks like that?  What the heck is the “cost of strategic victory for enemies in Iraq?”  Does he even review the garbage that he spews out before he arrives at the podium?  Another statement that the president likes to lean on when he faces criticism is complete non-sense:

“Defeating this enemy in Iraq will make it less likely we will face this enemy here at home”

How in the world can Al Qaida or any other “enemies of the U.S.” get into the U.S. to begin with?  It would require locals actually forming a coalition to attack the U.S. from within for another September 11th to happen.  If you bring up the Mexican border and how “open” it is, you’d be wrong if you think it is easy to pass back and forth via Mexico.  If you think there is anything but serious racial profiling at the borders, especially when it comes to anyone that resembles a “terrorist” you are wrong!

The Iraq War doesn’t protect us from threats at home, in fact it makes us weaker because if we are struck or invaded, if we are attacked– all of our troops will be overseas.  The truth of the matter is, we’re not concerned with what happens within our borders because we know that it’s not very easy to pull off “terrorist attacks” in the U.S.  So in effect what the President is doing is using our security as an excuse to remain in Iraq.  It is slowly but surely revealing itself to be as ugly as some skeptics believed in 2001, that is, this war is about oil, resources, and money for corporations.

War profiteering is probably the most lucrative way for corporations to benefit at the expense of the taxpayer.  There is no legitimate reason for our continued occupation of Iraq short of securing resources and feeding our addiction to oil while we’re there.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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