Just in case... Options

[Blakjak]

No one caught this, the head weapons inspestor charged with investigating Iraq's weapons programs by President Bush, has contradicted the vast majority of information the Bush administration released prior to the war. The report, released yesterday, reveals some glaring problems, including the aims of Saddam Hussein in regards to WMD's and the condition of Iraq's weapons development programs. I understand that Bush was supplied with certain information but come on. To have made such a grievous error in judgement as the current administration has is inexcusable, regardless of those reports from intelligence sources. It's not as if only parts of the justification were wrong, but that nearly everything was either false, misleading, or unsubstantiated.

1.) Hussein wanted to ultimately evade UN sanctions allowing him to research chemical weapons, missles, and nuclear wepons for the purposes of opposing Israel, threatening Iran, and raising his overal status in the Arab world. The report made no indication that the weapons would be used to directly oppose the U.S. or give to terrorists.

2.) Evidently sanctions were working effectively to limit Saddam's power and he had to resort to shady deals with other countries to preserve his regime. They were effective enough to deter Saddam from having a nuclear weapons program after 1991.

3.) There was no evidence of any type found or collected that indicated Hussein had mobile biological weapons factories. The report went so far as to say that Saddam had actually lost interest in the project around 96 due to secrecy concerns.

4.) And finally, although Iraq had pursued designs for scud missles, there was no evidence found that any work at all had been conducted on a long range missle project prior to the U.S. led invasion.

I personally am taking all of this with a grain of salt, as should everybody, but for a man appointed by President Bush to so soundly defeat the claims made by the administration prior to war is pretty disconcerting and disheartening. Because at the end of the day that's what this is really all about- the lives of American service men and women and the public's trust of the presidency and of the national government. Let the flaming begin, I will not respond. Just thought I'd put this out there, rather peculiar that it's being released at this point during the election heh.

[Bargod]

I personally believe we should have invaded Iraq for violating its cease fire with us long ago. However, since we didn't, I really wish we had focused on getting Bin Laden first and crushing all the little Al Qaeda pop ups we could before getting rid of Saddam. I don't care about weapons of mass destruction. I wanted him gone many years ago when he first started firing missles at the jets patroling the no fly zones. He is evil and needed to go. I just think the timing was poor.
Personally, I think Sudan should be next on our list. Are they a threat to us? No. However, they are committing genocide there and the US (Bush) has been trying to stop it for years. Oddly enough, Sudan is on the UN commitee that decides whether or not the UN intercedes in such an incident. They voted against the US v. Iraq, and now they think the UN should not intercede in their own country. SUPRISE! Yet the UN still lets them sit in on this panal! WTF? This world is FAWKED! It makes no sense! Oh, how I long for the good old days of worrying about whether we would hit the USSR before they hit us with nukes.
It was so much simpler then.