I didn't say it was primarily about Israel. I said it was more about Israel than it was about oil.
Are you saying it was more about oil?
It was mainly about removing Saddam, who was a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East, for a number of reasons. One of these reasons was his assistance to Palestinian terrorists.
Are you saying he wasn't funding the Palestinian homicide bombers?
President Bush and Secretary of State Powell were at the time trying to come up with a solution to the terrorist war against Israel. For this reason, I think that this was among the numerous reasons they decided Saddam had to be removed.
It absolutely drives me nuts that you cannot discuss things on this forum without people attaching the worst possible interpretation or motive to what one says, and completely overreacting.
Sure. Yes, I do indeed think that (to the extent that it was "about" either) it was more "about" oil than "about" Israel.
It was mainly about removing Saddam, who was a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East, for a number of reasons. One of these reasons was his assistance to Palestinian terrorists. Are you saying he wasn't funding the Palestinian homicide bombers?
I don't dispute that he was funding them. I do dispute that this fact should rank all that highly on the list of ways in which Saddam represented a threat to peace and stability on the Middle East.
President Bush and Secretary of State Powell were at the time trying to come up with a solution to the terrorist war against Israel. For this reason, I think that this was among the numerous reasons they decided Saddam had to be removed.
Among the numerous reasons, sure, I guess.
It absolutely drives me nuts that you cannot discuss things on this forum without people attaching the worst possible interpretation or motive to what one says, and completely overreacting.
I didn't make that other comment. I do think it is profoundly silly, and borderline harmful, to characterize the U.S. invasion of Iraq as having been "about Israel" in any significant or meaningful way. And so I don't think I overreacted.