Thanks siegswife for providing that list. I always get a chuckle out of the people who use the "Saddam kills his own people" reason as a valid excuse for the US going into Iraq. Besides the fact that the US has done the same thing, they have turned a blind eye to other nations that have done the same thing (including Iraq at one time). Don't get me wrong; I hate Saddam as much as the next guy and I'd like to see him go as much as I wanted to see Miloshevic go, but he does not present a real threat to US security (mearly hating the US is not a valid enough excuse). Scott Ritter(see: http://truthout.com/docs_02/07.25A.wrp.iraq.htm), former chief weapons inspector for the UN (and an ex- US marine, so if anything he'd have a pro- American bias), says that Saddam does not have the capability to have Weapons of Mass Destruction, since he was disarmed of 95% of his weapons at the time of the inspectors leaving (which the US requsted, BTW. Iraq did not kick them out). Iraq has said they will let inspectors back in, the US should go with this plan. Only if Iraq is being severely uncooperative should action be taken by the international community (and people seem to keep forgetting that Saddam is not well liked in the Middle East, so if he really were a threat, the Saudi's, Iranians and Kuwaitis would be first on board to go after him, because he would be a threat to them too, as he has been in the past).
What basically irritates me I guess, is that the US is pretending to be some kind of "good guy", out to save the world from Saddam. This is all about controlling the Iraqi oil market for the US. The US is sending a message to Mid East oil countries on what could happen to them if they try to screw up the oil market like Iraq has been doing. The US & Britain say that they will "present their case" in the near future (admitting that their stupid, unproven or irrelevant assertions need butressing). If they can make the case that Saddam really a threat, I'll be the first to cheer the troops on. But if the best they can come up with is "he gases his people", after we applauded Gen. Suharto in Indo-China for doing the same thing, then we can add yet one more reason to the "why the hate us" list.
I say take out Saddam by paying off people to assisinate him, if necessary. Even if they could prove that he has WMD and all that, they should try to take the guy out with as little force as necessary (I'm sure you can find Iraqis who hate Saddam who'd like to see him go, even in his close circle). We've already helped to kill enough Iraqis with the sanctions in place, let's try to prevent more bloodshed.
Edited by - crownboy on 10 September 2002 14:6:8