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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: FaultLine who started this subject	3/26/2004 8:58:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (3) of 281500

The situation with Iraq was thus: We could either continue containment indefinitely; We could end containment by allowing Iraq to go about its business unmolested; or We could end containment by ending the regime . One of the crucial aspects of containment was the oil embargo. It was well known that Saddam was diverting profits into his own schemes, rather than using the proceeds for humanitarian aid. Estimates of infant death as a result of these sanctions was running as high as several hundred thousand during the decade. Pressure was mounting to eliminate sanctions, which would have rendered containment fairly ineffective. As David Kay has shown, Saddam at least maintained the means to restart the various WMD programs as soon as he was free to go about his business. It should be recalled that we had no idea of how extensive his WMD programs were until the initial round of inspections in the early '90s, including in nuclear technology. He did not use chemical or biological weapons on us then, either, but we discovered he had them in abundance. There was every reason to err, if we did, on the side of caution. Finally, there was the option we did take. By terminating the regime, we could once and for all eliminate a threat to the stability of the region and to US interests that had been lingering for no good reason. We could finally fulfill our promises to the Kurds and Shi'ites who rose up against Saddam in the early '90s assuming our backing, and who were left without recourse when clandestine attempts to overthrow Saddam failed. We could make a demonstration of resolve that other rogue regimes would take to heart. And we could alter the politics of the region by eliminating Iraq from their worries and by providing an example of Arab democracy, supposing we succeed.

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