And Baathism is commited to the resurgence of the Arab people to global leadership, and regards the United States as the chief impediment to doing so. We occupy approximately the same position in their ideology that we do among the Islamicists.
Iraq improved ballistic missile designs itself, and, if I recall, shared them in turn.
The countries of the Arabian peninsula are extremely weak, militarily, and are used to buying off threats. They are appeasers, pure and simple.
We had a window of opportunity, and took it. It is by no means clear that we could have gone back in once having disengaged from the region, or without the general sentiment that the region needed a "housecleaning" in pursuit of terrorist threats against us.
We took precautions, but did not take hits. If the threat had a greater hold on the imagination, perhaps through attacks on places like Riyadh, I have little doubt the public would have reacted differently.
Yes, Israel probably would strike pre-emptively. Do we want a nuclear exchange in the Middle East? |
