Kevin, re >The lives of all the thousands of royal family members together are not worth the life of one American soldier.<
Agreed, but that's not the point of a bombing raid, to get rid of Islamic royalty. Granted, Clinton and everyone on down dislikes Saddam immensely for his barbarian ways (ie Kuwait invasion). Many are clamoring for the removal of Saddam, but that's not the primary US interest.
>The Gulf is a powderkeg with a burning fuse, and the only rational course for the US is to get neutral, but no one in Washington even talks about neutrality." - especially Newt<
I could not disagree more vehemently. I for one am thankful that President Clinton and the Congress takes Islamic fundamentalists seriously. The sooner we bomb Iraq the better. Here's why:
Iraq is (according to quite a bit of evidence) on the verge of being able to mount chemical/biological weapons on ballistic missiles. There is no evidence of them having the ICBMs yet, but it is feared that the same sources from which he got the BMs would eventually allow him to get ICBMs, whether outright or through piecing together the components. I'm sure everyone would agree that if Saddam (or indeed any of his ilk, as you say), gets long-range missiles with more accuracy than SCUDs, then the rest of the world may have a very dangerous problem child on their hands.
Saddam has shown that he is very willing to allow his country to endure much punishment, while his royal family is hunkered down in bunkers. Suppose Saddam decides that it would be worth the punishment he would receive if he could successfully lob a chemical or biological weapon on NYC? Would you still be talking "neutrality" for the US? Saddam would undoubtably instantly become one of the greatest heroes ever in the minds of many Islamic people. Before you write off this senario as far fetched, keep in mind the World Trade Center bombing, done by Islamic fundamentalists. And recall that the FBI barely prevented a couple of NYC commuter tunnels from being blown up shortly after that. The agents raided the house where the "witches brew" was literally being brewed up in a big vat.
Bombs away I say, and to he** with Russia. Saddam owes Russia like $47B, so of course the Russians don't want us to do something which would further cripple Saddam's ability to pay back them back.
DK |
