[JohnR]

I actually don't think this is a bad thread. It's good to get some people thinking instead of a "toe the line" knee jerk reaction. (I just seriously disagree with your thinking).

Yeh, war is wrong. I think even half the military will say and may even agree with that. The decisions to put our boys & girls into harm's way is something not to be taken lightly. Many might not come back. Like Duke, I think GW has effed up much of the process and simply should have done a better job. But there are too many pressing issues, too many bad signs, too much bad potential energy stored up in Iraq that can't be ignored.

When has Saddam really complied on ANYTHING unless the bomb bay doors were open?

Saddam gives a little lip action to the "International Commitee", Tariq Aziz calls it a conspiracy by the US & UK against the peace loving people of Iraq (which I don't doubt the people of Iraq on - it's the government that will roast your nuts for grins & giggles), then Saddam goes to one of his hundreds of bazzilion dollar palaces, waves an old AK or Enfield around firing in the sky in front of a public looking crowd that are really actors from the Ministry of Information. He then looks into the Al Jazeera camera and says he's the good guy & everyone is picking on him!

Its been the same thing over and over for the past decade. Nothing has changed with Iraq. But the current global climate has changed. The threat to the "free world" is no longer a tangable geographic entity with its westernmost foot print at the Inter-German border. The current threat is that small guys with small resources are willing to do maximum damage and inflict maximum death, on US for the most part. They can get this help from a guy like Saddam and he's willing to do it on his own too.

OK - 'nuff mouthing off for me - gotta get back to work...