Originally posted by kingdavid
...Would any of you guys say that the Saudi govt. is a model of demaocracy and freedom and justice for all and sundry in that country?...Is the Saudi model what you want to install in Iraq?...

Hell, no! And as I pointed out earlier, none of the Arab counrties has good government. I also said that Saudi Arabia is a likely candidate for massive internal revolution, as part of the ripple effect from having Iraq run by democratic self-government. This whole situation really is about fighting terrorism at the source.

Originally posted by kingdavid
...Rask,if sovereign nations go about removing the regimes in other sovereign nations that they consider "bad"(:eek: )who will decide who removes what regime when?And what criteria will be applied?And to what extent will that criteria be used?And how will that criteria be formulated?By who?...

This is very much what Osama Bin Laden et al are intent on doing. These thugs are now, and have been, at war with the West in general, and the US in particular. As far as they are concerned, they are a sovereign nation, in terms of their ability to wage war, operate a treasury, enact legislation (via proxy regimes like the Taliban), and impose penalties on those who they deem to be criminals (the decadent West). The destruction of the World Trade Center, and the attempted destruction of the Pentagon and the White House, were acts of war.

Originally posted by kingdavid
...It's one thing for you to rescue,at a given instance,your neighbour from her wife battering husband. This is very different. These are nations we are talking about. You see,couples,everyone,is under their domestic laws. How about nations? Who is America answerable to for their actions? God? The milky way supreme court? WHO?? This is a very fundamental question you're missing.

I suggest you may be missing the fundamental point in this instance.

Any individual, group, community, state, or nation is only obedient to those laws by which they agree to be bound. Disobedience may be punished by those who impose laws, subject to their ability to enforce those laws. In the case of a wife-beating husband, he is only subject to the discipline imposed on him by others.

This is no less the case for sovereign nations. Those who willfully break international laws, can only be punished by other nations who are willing, and able, to enforce those laws.

Saddam Hussein has routinely, and without remorse, broken the conditons that were imposed upon him at the suspension of the Gulf War. I use the word suspension by choice here. Fighting was halted based on his agreement to abide by certain conditions. It should not come as a surprise to anyone, that the world must be prepared to resume the fight if the agreement is broken. [u]And the agreement has been broken[/u].

The reason this is seen as an American fight, is that no-one else has demonstrated the moral clarity, or the intestinal fortitude, (and I count my own detestibly-led country among the feeble and/or unwilling), to stand up and say "[u]No more[/u]!"