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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sig who wrote (141467)	7/26/2004 2:05:33 AM
From: GST	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Sig -- The UN supported continued inspections, and this would have been a better course of action at that time for the United States. Our intelligence in Iraq was horrible -- and the intelligence from inspectors was extremely useful. We had a gap in intelligence that needed to be filled due to the 2 year absence of UN inspectors. Instead, we filled that gap with lying bastards who exploited our ignorance for their own gain. By allowing some period of continued inspections, we would also have been able to build a renewed and meaningful coalition -- something that the extremist influence in the White House wanted to avoid. If we had used a period of time to gain better intelligence and build a real coalition, we could now have a shot at doing what we said we wanted to do. Instead, we have a mess, and a new "strongman" to replace the old "strongman" -- Saddam. The chances for our success are made lower by the rush to war, and the cost of war has been much higher than it otherwise would have been. Meanwhile, we took our eye off the prize -- al Qaida, and we are more exposed to terrorism than if we had stayed focused.