Would you have supported the war in Iraq if....

[skypilot]

...the Bush administration had sold it to us as a humanitarian mission and if we'd gotten UN support? I'm asking because Al Franken and Lila Lipscomb were just discussing that and saying that they'd have supported the war under those conditions. I'm a bit ambivalent. I think things probably would have gone better in Iraq under those conditions but I still think that the mission would have been a diversion from the war on international terrorism. Selling the war as a humanitarian mission and getting UN support would still not have changed the fact the Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Your thoughts?

[Delano]

1. Has a humanitarian mission...

...ever invaded, bombed and overthrown a sovereign government?

Kind of a slippery slope perhaps...

[mac56]

2. It seems like an internal contradiction.

If it were a humanitarian mission with full UN support and cooperation, it probably wouldn't have resulted in an invastion and conquest. At least, not until many other options were tried.

[Connie_Corleone]

3. Maybe

I've thought about it. I probably would have supported some type of action if it was for humanitarian reasons like Kosovo. But, we were supposed to be in the middle of a "war on terror" and finishing the job in Afghanistan should have been the first priority.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. probably not

because I never accepted the WMD rubbish, or ties to al Qaeda, but I did wonder whether it could be justified for the benefit of the Iraqi people. My decision at the time was not - because there were other avenues open (let the inspectors do their job, rethink the sanctions, bribe and/or fool Saddam into resigning some way, and probably other ideas).

If there had been UN support I might have - on the grounds that if many professional politicians and diplomats from different countries think invasion is the only option, then they may be more experienced and intelligent than me, and with access to information I don't have. But I wouldn't have felt completely convinced (like I still have qualms about bombing Serbia because of kosovo).