Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:
I disagree. On a conventional level, perhaps it holds water, but Hussein had a demonstrated and long-standing desire to obtain nuclear weapons (never mind chem/bio), and whether his scientists built the things or he obtained them through another source, as long as he had a nation-state in which to hide activities, it was a tremendous risk.



You have nailed it entirely on the head.

Originally posted by Jeb Hoge:
Sure, for nukes we've got North Korea to contend with, and potentially Iran, but knocking down the Hussein regime most certainly gave those nations pause, and also most certainly led to Libya voluntarily putting an end to its own programs and embracing UN inspections. I think Iran's waffling between trying to continue its program and following the Libyan lead, myself, but even if they don't, we still have gotten a two-for-one elimination of hostile nations attempting to develop WMD.



Full marks, again. Now that extremist nations understand that it's not entirely out of sight or mind that what we did in Iraq is a repeatable excercise for the US, one should notice the IMMENSE lack of sabre-rattling from N. Korea, Iran and Syria. Libya? Mommar K. has "opened the kimono"; no longer are they the wildcard they used to be.

Can someone say results?

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