Originally posted by Ex-FB
Okay lots of good points, so I'll try and address them all.

Re: Not looking for Osama Bin Laden. If you poured all the troops into Afghanistan I'm pretty certain you would have him by now. Instead they're off in another country creating more terrorists. I'm betting Al-Queida was on it's knees before Iraq, now they've got no end of fresh recruits for their cause.

Re: Saddam not a threat and N. Korea having the bomb etc.

Simple human nature dictates that every person (unless barking mad) has a reason for their actions, especially major ones.

Do you think Saddam woke up one day and decided to invade Kuwait? Do you think he randomly gassed the Kurds? He had his reasons (sick and dispicable though they are), but he stood to gain something out of it. Which is the crucial driving force. What would he stand to gain by attacking the US? What would N. Korea stand to gain by attacking the US? Or Iran? What is their motivation to do such a thing? I'm not saying their sweet and innocent, I'm just saying that they are at present being backed into a corner where they have to develop the bomb as the only way to detter the blood thirsty Bush from attacking next.

As for Saddam being a threat, come off it. How exactly was he a threat. His non-existant WMD? His ongoing war with Al-Queida?

What makes it okay for your country to start invading other countries, yet if anyone else did it you would say it was wrong? Is it better for someone to die from an American bullet than a Palestinian one? Face facts. Invading Iraq created an army of anti-American terrorists. It was a dumb move.

Re: Nukes being an offensive weapon.
Again, are you so self centred that you believe that North Korea is going to sacrifice itself just so it can nuke an American city? What motivation would they have to start a nuclear war, one which they would lose in minutes.

America has a number of enemies around the world, very few of them are prepared to actually act upon this hatred and start a shooting match. Quite simply your biggest enemy is Al-Quieda. How do you react to this threat? You invade two countries (one of which has no link whatsoever to Al-Quieda) and strengthen the terrorists hand. You have given justification to their cause, and the next time (god forbid) there is another horrific attack on US soil I doubt if there will be the massive outpouring of world sympathy that 9/11 evoked. The mnner in which you attacked Iraq has alienated many of your closest allies and shown your hand as blood thirsty conquerers (in the eyes of many muslims). The attack on Iraq gave Osama Bin Laden the moral support he needed to continue this fight.
As we learned in World War II, containment is not an option for a leader who has demonstrated no regard for human life, save his own and is willing to use terrible force on his own countrymen as well as his neighbors. He can't stay in power. He isn't a threat to the US. We would squash him (as we demonstrated in the Gulf War). He is a threat to neighboring countries and his own people.

I am glad to see that the left is actively opposing this war/action. I believe that this is a healthy expression of the freedom of America. One of the problems with the American Left, though, is that they are a rag tag collective of various special interests. At any rally you will see a collective of pacifists, American Socialists, PETA, minority groups, greenpeacers, human rights activists, and the American Communist Party. In most cases they are people who have good intentions but are highly misguided. And they are now creating a more defiant Saddam Hussein.

On Monday (Feb 24, 2003) Hussein was openly defiant of the UN indicating that he would not destroy the missiles which exceed the range allowed in the resolution that ended the first Gulf War, while challenging President Bush to a debate.

Once this operation is complete we will learn about many atrocities that have been carried out in Iraq, unfortunately the same group of special interests will then complain that we did not do enough to stop the suffering under Hussein.