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February 6, 2003

Even if some of Powell's

Daniel Radosh

Even if some of Powell's facts don't quite hold up, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on overall accuracy. What he didn't address, however, is what for me has always been the biggest issue: Even if Saddam Hussein is a menace to the people of Iraq (no question), and is secretly developing WMDs (almost certainly), and is in league with al Qaeda (dubious, but within the realm of possibility) — why is war the best solution to these problems? Bush & Co. have created a false dichotomy between going to war and "doing nothing" (inspections alone, let's face it, count as doing nothing in the long run). But there is a Plan B. Once again, I point to Robert Wright's brilliant essay, A Real War on Terrorism. He's not primarily dealing with Iraq here, but it's easy to extrapolate. The question the administration needs to answer, for me, is why their plan is better than this one, which not only involves less killing, but is also more likely to work.

And if that fails, hey, there's always Plan C.

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