[sspadowsky]

I think you raise some very good points, Abcd, but I have to disagree with a number of them. Previous Ba'ath influence aside, Hussein's coming to power was heavily aided by our government in terms of money, weapons, and training. That's a pretty clear-cut case of being an accessory.

If the Bush family weren't involved...if the oil factor wasn't a consideration... if Imperialist guilt was never worth mentioning...then really our perception would be rather different now wouldn't it?

All of these "Ifs" are irrelevant. This is a situation where the Bushes are involved, oil is a factor, and imperialist guilt is most definitely worth mentioning. If it were somebody else, with an entirely different set of circumstances, of course our perceptions would be different.

but honestly the Middle East ISN'T stable at all, and it hasn't been stable for decades...and removing Saddam and a host of other evil regimes will improve the climate between nations there, and the quality of life WILL improve for Iraqi citizens.

I hope you're right. I most sincerely do. But history doesn't make a strong case for it. Furthermore, even if every country in the Middle East dislikes Saddam, everything I see, hear, and read, seems to indicate that most of the region still regards us as highly suspicious. They still see our 'liberation' of Iraq as an imposition of Western influence by way of setting up a democratic government modeled after ours. With our influence will come elements of our culture, which many followers of Islam disapprove of. Even if it turns out to be good for Iraq in our eyes, you have to take into account how it plays to the audience of Middle Eastern countries. It's sort of like booking George Carlin to speak at a Southern Baptists convention, you know?

I think we have more of a resonsibility to rebuild and restructure Iraq then we do Afghanistan.

This one I disagree with vehemently. We've bombed the shit out of both of them and killed a lot of innocent people. Afghanistan was already in shambles from two decades of battle. Their economy has nothing but the opium trade. Christ, at least Iraq has oil. Afghanistan needs, and deserves, at minimum, equal assistance in reconstruction. But, my guess is we'll keep just enough troops over there to protect the pipeline we're building, and let the chaos continue.

There's something else I was wondering about..... This alleged threat Hussein poses. We know damn well he can't attack us directly. "But he could attack his neighbors," I've heard some say. Well, how come we haven't heard anything in the news along the lines of "Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Iran are openly supporting US military action out of fear that Iraq poses a clear and direct threat to their safety"? As we all know, the Bush Family Show pulled out every conceivable angle to support their case for war, and I never heard anyhting like that on the news. And if that happened, I'd sure like to know how the hell I missed it.
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