I respectfully disagree with you on that last point, sailor. First of all, the US has the support of the few key players that we need. The UK is with us (they’re ready to ship troops as we speak), and Turkey has granted us permission to use their nation as a staging ground. Israel certainly supports us. Others will turn around if the war starts off well… which it will. Even if every other nation in the world aside from the three I mentioned were opposed to us attacking Iraq, would we do it? Quite possibly, and personally I would hope so. Depose a dangerous dictator who is amassing WMDs and who we know would use them, given the chance, who is openly hostile towards the US, and who seeks (like much of the Arab world) the complete eradication of Israel? Or play nice to make sure that we don’t arouse the anger of Europe? The choice seems obvious. Would you piss of your neighbor in order to keep out a criminal who was trying to murder you in your house? Saddam is a threat, we know this, we will act on this. If the rest of Europe chooses to frown upon this, so be it, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it needs to be done. Should have been done 10 years ago, in fact.
There are also a number of secondary benefits to knocking Saddam out of power. Currently, a large number of middle eastern nations as saying, “Yes, terrorists are bad, shame on them for killing innocent civilians”, even as they grant money to the families of those. These nations include Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and I believe a few others whose names escape me at the moment. Striking Iraq would send the message to them that if they choose to fund attacks against us and our allies, there will be a price to pay. I would expect to see at least Iran and Syria, and possibly even Saudi Arabia, change their tune after we knock down Saddam. Further, by inserting a friendly government into Iraq, we would establish another oil producing country that actually liked us (Russia being the first - kudos to Bush for striking that deal with Putin). We would no longer be as likely to be held hostage by oil-producing nations. Also, with one of terrorisms larger supporters out of the ring, and an implicit warning going out to others, we may see a significant drop in attacks against Israel, meaning that perhaps some “peace talks” could take place that will actually accomplish something. Israel will be beseiged by terrorists until either the nations supporting them stop, or until Israel is decimated. Personally, I opt for the former.
I recall someone at the top of this thread asked, “Why Iraq? Why not China?” Short answer: We can’t take China. We can take Iraq. That, and China hasn’t said they want to kill us, and paid people to attack our allies.
Bottom line: We have the motive to attack Iraq, we have the power to attack Iraq, and we have the strategic support we need. Saddam’s continued existence in the seat of power jeopardizes both our nation, and Israel’s. We’d be fools not to invade.
Jeff
