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Politics : Support the French! Viva Democracy! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (4140)	12/18/2003 7:38:06 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 7834

In reference to the idea that the US ought to have instigated a civil war in Iraq, I pointed out that the casualties of that strategy would likely be extremely large and would possibly fail. I also don't believe for a minute that the UN or any critics of the Iraqi war would actually approve of this. Statements like "Saddam wanted a neo-Babylonian empire" are not helpful in understanding the situation. Failure to realize what Saddam's real motivations were are not helpful. Saddam was both ruthless and stupid. He was stupid to invade Iran. He was stupid not to withdraw from Kuwait peacefully when faced by an overwhelming international coalition intent on forcing his army out. If he didn't in fact possess WMD's, he was stupid not to document that to the UN's satisfaction and end sanctions against his country. If he did possess WMD's, he was stupid not to destroy them and document that destruction to the UN in order to get out from under sanctions. He could then have restarted his WMD programs without any UN problems. Do you realize we are talking about a guy with no such attempts at aggression over the past decade? Yes, he did try out his ambitions. They failed. That he was aggressive more than a decade ago is hardly a very bright argument to invade Iraq NOW. Well, he wasn't able to be aggressive outside his borders for the past decade because the US (with UN authorization) were stopping him. For the past decade he was under international sanctions and large amounts of his country were patrolled by our air force. Re. countries which had an interest in keeping Saddam in power, those countries are France, Russia, and China. The interests are sweetheart oil development contracts and the outstanding debts.