I’ve been saying the same for years now. I’m not sure that it would even be technically and logistically possible to maintain the attack force we had in the Gulf and on Saddam’s border. I’m pretty certain that no border nation could politically afford that kind of US presence without certainty that we wouldn’t give in to the left, withdrawal and leave them with an even more powerful Saddam and fundamentalist movements.
AFAIK, no one of any credibility has ever defended an alternative invasion plan beyond vague sound bites of “give the UN more time” or “get more international support”.
I have believed (way before 9/11), that the policy of containment was immoral and consigned millions to tyranny for decades.
The President had absolutly NO choice after 9/11, he could not depend entirely on the predictability of a madman and sons, with billions for WMD, the M.O. to use them, the open threats to the US, and the open support, financial and territorial, of the Islamic cults.
Take a few hours one night and read articles by the NYT, WP, or Robin Wright, "expert", from about 93 on, you will be amazed at their logic at that time, and amazed at their intellectual dishonesty now.
I am sick of it, and crave an honest accounting of Iraq, and the US for the last decades, our citizens deserve it.
Because for most of the left, history begins when they wake up in the morning, which is their plan to defeat Bush's efforts in Iraq, to reinvent history everyday.