Originally posted by SLY

Originally posted by Lordathestrings
[B] ...I mean after he blows Israel off the map (and the neighboring countries with it), do you really believe he would say "Yeah, that's all I wanted to do. I can retire now."???

I realy doubt that Saddam can blow Israel off the map , even if he stays in power for more decades .

As a matter of fact , before an Iraqi WMD missle reaches Israel (if Iraqi WMDs realy exist) , Iraq is going be blown off the map first ... Haven't you heard about Israel's huge arsenal of WMDs , including a realy big one full of nuke heads ?

The MAD principal that governed the Cold War won't work here. An ICBM fired from the US or USSR would take over twenty minutes to land. Both the US and USSR had and still have satalites and radar installations that track potential launches and so there was time for the launches to be confirmed, codes could be read and the missles could be armed and a retalitory volley could be fired before the first missles launched hit their target.
Mutually Assured Destruction.
As far as anyone knows, Israel has no such monitoring facillities, and even if they did (or if the US were to warn them), Iraqi missles would have already vaporized Jerusalem. Iraq could very easily make a first strike against Israel with no Israeli retaliation at all because the government and military command is all dead (along with a few million civilians). This is why Iraq isn't allowed missles with a range greater than 90km, and why the US is pointing out very clearly that Iraq keeps trying to purchase rocket engines that have a range greater than 90km, EVEN NOW.

BTW ,isn't it illegal for a country like Israel to have nuke heads ? And from what I know , Israel never accepted full inspections on their nuclear activities ... They also refuse UN investigations on some their non-human military actions against palestinian civilians .
My point here is that Iraq co-operate and respect the UN hell more than Israel , and Iraq is the only one who gets the sh*t... Is that fair ?

Iraq is the only nation mentioned in the above paragraph with a sitting government responsible for unprovoked invasions of sovereign nations, and I haven't heard anything about Israel signing any agreements banning them from having nuclear weapons.

And now, this sound like the "preemptive strikes" bullsh*t ... You can't judge someone for a crime he has never commited just cuz you're just afraid he MIGHT do it .... This isn't justice, not at all man.

Criminals are judged and sentenced for the crimes they realy commited , not those they might have commited.

The crime in question here is Saddam's invasion of Kuwait 12 years ago and the obvious fact that Saddam's government has not lived up to the agreements it made as a result of it. When criminals violate their parole, they go back to jail, usually with increased sentences. Sadam has violated the agreements ending a war, the war is going to be finished. All this other stuff - the long list of human rights violations, political assassinations, his long history of agression, total state control of the Iraqi media, etc are all factors in determining the next best course of action.

Taj Mahal said it best:
I don't care what in the world that you do
As long as you do what you say you're going to
Ain't nobody's business but your own

I honestly don't care (and I don't think anybody should) if a nation like Canada or France does or doesn't have WMDs; they aren't aggressive and don't have an agenda of conquest. Even China and North Korea while oppressive to their people still demonstrate the basic responsibility to not use such weapons except as a last resort. Saddam has shown very clearly that WMDs are his primary strategy, "If I have enough of these, nobody's going to try and stop me, and I can do anything I want."
Saddly, you're right, this can totally be averted, but the responsibility lies totally with Saddam Hussein. But he holds up the inspection process for months and years at a time, makes a small concession under enormous pressure, the international community says "HEY! He just let us talk to a (thouroughly coached) Nuclear Scientist, let's give him more time to dig in!" ...and the farce continues.
But what I find most saddening though is that every week we put off removing this domination-bent dictator, the death toll ratchets up for everybody.