[Cronos]

That is what the war was about—protecting the Saudis, the Gulf oil states and Israel from Saddam Hussein and his marauding army.

Yes and I think that:

1. Israel could have handled Saddam
2. BUT the Saudis/Qataris would not have been able to do so

We should have left the peninsular Arabs to their fate.

[DoughtyOne]

But that fate would not have stopped on the Peninsula. It would have gobbled up Jordan, Egypt, Libya... down across Africa.

We’re talking about a massive occupation and swap-out of governments to become one massive nation.

During the process that effort would expend it’s energy to develop WMDs and seek more territory.

Why allow that to happen? It wouldn’t be good. It seems to me a stable region with governments in place is a much safer world.