Jim,
"Has it ever occured to you that maybe, just maybe there were no such weapons in Iraq?"
Irrelevant. The U.S. plainly thought that there were WMD's there and that Iraq would use them. The US was completely prepared to fight them even with WMD's and they brought the necessary equipment to do so.
"You argue that dictators such as Saddam are "madmen".
Perhaps you have me confused with someone else. I've never said that Saddam Hussein was a madman. I thought he was a coldly calculating thug and a very good one at that. He possessed the kind of shrewdness and mentality that I would attribute to an Al Capone.
His downfall was that he never understood that the United States, the sleeping giant, could with enough provocation, acquire sufficient resolve to bring about his demise. I believe his view of America was still rooted in the way we conducted ourselves in the Vietnam War. He thought we would break or give up. We didn't. He miscalculated, fatally.
Having said that I'll also answer your "madman' theory. Your point was, " If they really are MAD, crazy SOBs, they would probably use the weapons hoping to cause as much casualties as possible without any regard for human suffering."
Yes, all the more reason to get rid of the madman. In the case of Hussein, he had already killed over a million Muslims including Iranians, Iraqis and Kurds so he certainly had no regard for human suffering.
But, if he were truly mad or psychotic why do you think he'd be willing to stop at that? Why would anybody be willing to remain complacent and wait for this guy to strike anywhere he will throughout the world. If he's truly psycho why should the nations of the world trust him?
The risk we take by doing nothing is to have a potential serial mass killer sponsoring unheard of cruelty & suffering throughout the world by abusing the power of a state that he controls.
Personally, I think it's a no-brainer. Certainly, people will die in the war to remove him, but at least you bring the insanity to an end.
I guess this brings me to a conclusion that I came to long ago. Wars are horrible, vicious and tragic.....and sometimes necessary. |
