Am I just being cynical or is this whole war with Iraq thing playing out so it will peak a month to a month and a half before elections are scheduled?
I don’t want to believe it, but it is the feeling I am getting. What are your opinions?
TV
Nah, I just can’t believe he’d really unleash a cruise missile attack on a sovereign nation just to take our minds off of the intern. 
Really, though, I have no doubt that Dubya believes that Sadaam needs taking out and, while it is possibly a consideration for some of the many players involved in the whole scenario, I don’t think the whole thing is being staged to mid-term election timing. YMMV.
2002 by-elections? Not possible. The actual military buildup would have started months ago.
2004 elections? It would kill his re-election bid.
2006 by-elections? Gore won’t do it. 
The tail caught the dog. Man
I think he would like to, but NATO/UN aren’t playing along. Also the whole Israel/Palestine thing is a festering sore that is occupying the world stage and doesn’t allow for another jaunt into Iraq. Iraq has also been “negotiating” with the UN recently, so I think they are also trying to forestall an attack.
The cynic in me hasn’t seen anything that would support taking out Saddaam now as opposed to any time in the past 12 years.
I think he also may be simply trying to spook Iraq into quietly killing the fanatics (not literally). Saddam is a jerk, but he knows how to stay alive, mostly. He’ll cool it off if he thinks he can get more by playing nice.
Which is more than we can say for our “allies”, the Saudis.
I’d be saddened, sickened, and depressed if the timing oh-so-conveniently coincided with elections, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Surely Bush is too intelligent to waste the lives and treasure that would be spent to put Saddam’s brother who kills people with an electric carving knife in power and piss off the Middle East.
It is a bluff either to Spook Saddam or curry favor with the US voters.
Unfortunatly Maggie Thatcher was kept inpower by the Falklands war. It seems to be a good political tactic.
egg
Yeah, but the Argentines were seriously screwing with the residents of the Falklands who were Brits.
Hey, if they invaded Samoa I’d just as soon let them keep it, but one can’t let others go grabbing part of you territory.
Timing should only be considered if you doubt the sincerity of his action.
Ummmm, I think you are referring to one of Saddam’s sons, who is in disfavor with Saddam ever since he beat one of Saddam’s bodyguards to death. Plus, he’s a paraplegic which wouldn’t convey the sense of “all-powerful leader” all that well.
It’s true; W’s advisors see the defeat of Saddam as an E-ticket to re-election in 2004. To deny that this math has already been worked out by Karl Rove and his merry band of tricksters is naive.
Victory must come long enough beforehand that it’s not so painfully obvious, but late enough that the ratings bounce from the war is still there. You want the voters to still feel high from their CNN video game smash-em-up, but not to have enough time to take into consideration all the corporate corruption, jingoistic Christian militantism, artless foreign policy, and deteriorating economy that has marked the W administration to date.
We’re still leery of so openly defying nearly every friend and ally we have, though. So look for some concocted excuse @ Christmas 2003 - another terrorist attack, “proof positive” of bioweapons development, something along those lines. (Maybe they’ll trot out that one about the babies being dumped out of their incubators again.)
As far as the midterm elections go, I don’t have any feeling as to what the GOP might try and pull. We’ll just have to wait and see. IMHO.