Originally posted by Lordathestrings
Iraq has had ten years in which to prove that there are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in place. Say what you will about the presence, or absence, of UN inspectors, the bottom line is that the conditions Saddam Hussein agreed to at the end of the Gulf War have not been met. Even by the standards of the UN, there is justification for military action. (I might add here, that when the UN apointed Libya to chair the Human Rights Committee, it lost its credibility).

Now, what happens when the US, with or without an international coalition, removes Saddam Hussein from power, and supports the kind of transition to democracy that was fostered in post-war Japan? The economic sanctons are lifted, the oilfields go back into production. Iraq may or may not join OPEC. Either way, the wealth produced from oil exports reaches more of the people because it is no longer being diverted to support a totalitarian police state. People discover a kind of personal freedom and responsibility that is unknown in any other part of the Arab world. And that causes great nightmares for the House of Saud, the Syrians, the Jordanians, and the regimes in Oman, Yemen, and the UAE!

Thank you so much for saying that for me.

SLY (and others too), what you fail to realize is that holding ground requires a lot of troops. The US has been holding ground in all kinds of Peacekeeping missions for years now (Japan, North Korea, the Balkans, etc), and Afghanistan. Iraq has a well educated populace that's quite capable of governing itself with Saddam out of the way, but it also has three large ethnic groups that don't always get along and they will need to be policed until they have chosen some kind of unified government. Actually invading Iran while holding down all these obligations especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan would be idiotic. US forces are already spread thin - which is why North Korea is rattling sabers right now, and quite frankly, Iran's current leadership is in trouble. It seems that it's young populace is itching for democracy, and there is enough support for them to make Political Scientists all over the world all gooey eyed. Why would we want to invade Iran too when it's undesirable government is either going to fall or make a ton of consessions to it's people and when we'd just have to police that much more turf. There is absolutely no benefit to the United States to even try it. None.
Until 9/11 Bush's foreign policy was 1). get our troops out of foreign nations (because our forces are spred too thin to be fully effective) and 2). learn how to pronounce a few of their names. That he would suddenly turn to global domination doesn't strike me as a likely explanation for his actions now.

US Nukes: GW saying he'd use nuclear weapons "if appropriate" forces Saddam to question whether or not using chemical/biological weapons is such a good idea. Before deploying his WMDs, he's forced to ask himself if his hiding place is strong enough to survive a nuclear attack, and if he'd survive. He's a dictator and a murderer, but he's not stupid; if he thinks he'll get bit in the ass for using them, he's less likely to try and deploy them.

Very funny , Saddam needs time to build weapons and plans to resist U.S. invasion with the UN inspectors inspecting every inch in Iraq ... What a conclusion !

A). UN inspectors are covering a small fraction of Iraq (and aren't even being allowed to perform airial recon to cover some of the gaps... "If Iraq has nothing to hide, why are they hiding something?").
B). I said Saddam wants time to prepare his defenses, not build weapons (though if his nuclear hasn't developed a working bomb yet, I'm sure he'd rather have it than not). You know, like dig in, deploy troops, gather intelligence, formulate a strategy, prepare escape routes, contingancy plans...

About the Iraqi scientists thing ... It was claimed that the U.S. is trying to attract Iraqi scientists , as they did with German scientists before ... It's a bad attitude anyhow.

Yeah, but German scientists knew things we didn't, Iraqi scientists are playing catch-up... so what is it we need them for?

Oh, yes! So maybe the offer of asylum and protection will encourage a few to risk the lives of their families and supply us/ the UN with information.

Back to my point ... Iraq has been forced to do many things peacefully , and can be forced to do other good things peacefully too.

Saddam's government has never been forced to do anything peacefully.