Albert, the thing to realize about Saddam is that nobody wants him to stay around, not us, not the Arabs in surrounding countries, not many of the Arabs and Kurds in Iraq, and not even some of the Iraqis. With popularity like that, we don't need a war to get rid of him. The right kind of diplomacy, coupled with generous amounts of assistance to the cooperating countries (you can call it bribes if you choose, but assistance is the legal term), would be sufficient, and cheaper than a war.
The President says that the war protestors don't think Saddam is a threat. That's his form of propaganda to justify a war and distract the public from thinking about the mess he's made of the economy. It is simply an unsubstantiated opinion. The majority of people around the world, including war protestors, don't want Saddam to remain. The issue is not appeasement and is not justified either by a preemptive strike. The issue is simply that Saddam is a menace to his own people as well as many others and should be removed. How he should be removed is the real question, and there is a good case that he can be removed without our starting a war. To say that war is the only way fails to acknowledge other legitimate alternatives.
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