In response to the original question: What effect will the Bush speech have? speaking for myself and the majority of the country, IT PISSED ME OFF! because they preempted ABC’s Are You Hot. They didnt even put Are You Hot on after the press conference. I had been waiting all week to see the babes from Hot Zone 4 strut their stuff and all i got was was an hour of Bush not answering any questions. He just lost my vote, dammit.
Who invited you here?
Good argument, hazel-rah.
How sure are you that Iraq poses no threat to the US or the rest of the world in terms of terror? I don`t think that you or I are privey to that information. If Iraq is as pure as they claim then why do we keep finding more violations? They could end all of this by coming clean now. Since you weigh the power of the UN so heavily in your argument why are you willing allow Iraq to toy with them in the manner they are? SH could open up the country and allow random inspections by more inspectors or even organised troops (unthreatening) to all the locations we suspect he is hiding weapons. We should also be able to interview all the scientists and lab workers unfettered.
Of course, if SH is hiding things he doesn`t want the UN to find then he can pretty much continue to steer the inpections in the direction they are going now.
I don`t want to go to war over this guy either. My gripe is that if there is a terror link then I want to know about it now and I want it broken now. The tyrant issue is just another reason for me to not feel sorry for this guy and to help justify the end of his regime.
Im not comfortable just "containing" a terrorist or their supporters. One could argue that Osama-BL was contained in the cave he was hiding in when the towers came down. The problem with terrorists is that you *cant* contain them. You never know who they are. And finally, I think we need to look at Saudia Arabia and Pakistan much more closely and figure out what roles they play in the terror network. I dont think youll find one terrorist in the nation of Isreal that would attack a US interest. For some reason, which at times escapes me, Isreal and the US are pretty close allies. At times like this, in the situation we are approaching, it is good to have a close ally nearby.