Discussion with Hawks: Rational, but No Rationale

So I had lunch yesterday with three smart people who are, to varying degrees, in favor of the war. Each of them is, I hasten to admit, better informed than I am as well. They paid at least some attention in school, and they absorb all the news coverage, whereas I don't watch TV and can only read a fraction of the war news in the paper without feeling sick.

So, intelligent, knowledgable, and articulate though they were, and outnumbering me three to one, they still could not come up with a reason why we are in Iraq now. Here are the salient points each made over a half hour's talk:

Handgun Man: Saddam only complies when military pressure is on, and sometimes you have to follow through on your threats. Just because much of the support from the U.S. population is ignorant and racist doesn't mean that we shouldn't take the opportunity to kick the ass of a tyrant who openly dislikes us.

Imperial Man: The U.S. is like no other nation. It has a manifest destiny to attack evil wherever it occurs and save innocents wherever they are threatened. Iraq is just the first of many. Other countries and the U.N. can either fall in line or get out of the way. Besides, we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and is willing to use them, based on incidents from years past. No need to prove it to the world.

Moderation Man: Most likely, fewer people will be killed and displaced by the war than would have suffered similar fates under a continued Saddam regime. The war seems like a good thing to do, except that (1) financial gains to Republican cronies make it suspect, (2) the administration keeps flagrantly lying, and (3) he doesn't want his D.C. office to be a bomb site.

My responses are perhaps predictable: I find Handgun Man overly cynical, Imperial Man scary as hell, and Moderation Man reasonable. But none of them could give me an official government rationale that actually, you know, justifies the preemptive strike.

That's my report from the lunch spots of our nation's capital.

-- Sesame Street Liberal Man