Trust Us
CNN has a story about attempts to calm relations between Iran and the US at the Davos meetings.
Someone set up a meal that was typical of most business conferences I have ever been to: i.e. pretty much one problem after another.
Apparently someone forgot that the Iranians would probably be observant Muslims and not the usual convention goers. They had invited a cartoonist to be on a panel at the meal. Senator Joe Biden got lost and was over an hour late.
This isn’t going to work. No one trusts the US. If we had a new Secretary of State that wasn’t associated the Iraq War, some might have given Bush the benefit of the doubt, which was yet another reason that Condoleeza Rice should not have been confirmed.
Saddam Hussein complied with the UN resolutions and disarmed. Everyone knows this now, because the US has spent months and millions looking for weapons of mass destruction and came up empty. Iraq followed the rules and was still invaded. This tells North Korea, Iran, and others, that there is no safety to be bought by disarming; only weapons can provide any protection from aggression.
This is what unilateral, pre-emptive wars bring when the reason for the war is false. We are less safe, have no international credibility, and have lost a major tool in increasing our security.
