cadalano wrote:it absolutely would justify the war to a lot of people if WMDs are discovered. i don't really agree with your analogy- it would be more accurate if, instead of a druglord, you were suspected of being a terrorist. its much easier to justify raiding your house in that situation.. both from the official channels and from the public opinion. there's a quote from Hermann Goering that I think of every time these discussions come up and even though its been posted probably a dozen times, here it is again
Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country
Yes, you are right that it would justify the war to a lot of people, but a lot of people feel the war is already justified. I feel that if they were to find any evidence now (yeah, i more meant to imply evidence of WMD vs the weapons themselves, since they aren't going to find the later without the former), it would more than likely not be linked to any of the "evidence" they had for going to war.
Sure, the analogy has problems, but I was just trying to describe a situation where someone or something was invaded/searched based on false information (Iraq due to WMD vs my home due to being a druglord), and years after the invasion/search occurred, something loosely linking to the original reason of the search was found (I was thinking of something like random papers talking about WMD programs, but these jets fit pretty well, and a pipe in my example). I personally do not see this justifying the initial actions (obviously the situation i described happens in law enforcement, but it does not result in near the number of deaths war does, and generally if something is that wrong there are repercussions for the people who planned/obtained the search/warrant).
Yeah, that's a pretty famous quotation of Hermann Goering, and certainly it applies to the war on terror/domestic monitoring. I don't specifically what you meant in regards to this discussion, other than pointing out that it describes exactly what was done for Iraq war. However, I like to think, as a citizen of the US, that person in charge of my government would hold themselves/be held to a higher standards, at least when compared to WWII Germany.
