Toxic world fallout from Iraq invasion

[dipsydoodle]

The war in Iraq was supposed to be over long before now.

It was not supposed to provoke a conflict between Sunni and Shia or stir up an al-Qaeda hornet's nest.

Nor was it supposed to alienate much of the rest of the world from US foreign policy, which post 9/11 was on the crest of a wave of sympathy.

It was intended, its proponents argued, to remove a threat to world peace and to plant the flag of freedom in a Middle East democratic desert.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7293689.stm

continues.......The critics countered that the threat was an illusion, that the US was invading illegally and sought control over the region and Iraq's oil.

[Eurobabe]

1. I wonder what the world's TOXIC burden from this illegal war is....

:shrug: as in poisons spilled into the envrionment.

[Vincardog]

2. Start with the DU poisoning the water. Score 1 crime against nature for jr.

[astonamous]

3. Me too...I thought maybe someone MSM had finally caught on. n/t

[malaise]

4. Sadly Paul Reynolds has no credibility on matters Iraq

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/dec/16/worlddispatch.pressandpublishing
<snip>
The Post's story is also discussed on the BBC website. Under the headline "Wanted: an Iraqi link to al-Qaida ", Paul Reynolds, the website's world affairs correspondent, views it as part of a long and unsuccessful effort to link Iraq with al-Qaida.

"One of the most intriguing questions in the 'war on terrorism'," he writes, "is whether there are contacts between Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Intelligence agencies are constantly looking for the 'missing link'."

The quotation marks around "missing link" distance the BBC from the idea that such a link exists, though the definite article preceding it suggests otherwise. Why are intelligence agencies looking for "the" missing link and not "a" missing link?

Journalistically, it's more interesting to talk about a "missing" link than a "possible" link but even when the tone of discussion is sceptical - as it was in the BBC's case - there's still a drip effect. The more we mention missing links, the more people will assume they are out there somewhere, waiting to be found.