[dfwgator]

Irrelevant. Saddam violated the 1991 Cease Fire agreement, and we knew he was trying to obtain WMDs. That is the bottom line, he didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This is "The War on Terror", not the "War on Al-Qaeda."

[sono]

Salman Pak.

Also, Stephen Hayes, in "The Connection," demonstrated more linkages between Iraq and AQ.

[rhombus]

rrelevant. Saddam violated the 1991 Cease Fire agreement, and we knew he was trying to obtain WMDs. That is the bottom line, he didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This is "The War on Terror", not the "War on Al-Qaeda."

Very well said.

[EODGUY]

"Irrelevant. Saddam violated the 1991 Cease Fire agreement, and we knew he was trying to obtain WMDs. That is the bottom line, he didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This is "The War on Terror", not the "War on Al-Qaeda."


Finally....someone who has pointed out exactly what I emphasize in every discussion in which I am involved. Saddam violated the agreement that brought the Gulf War to a HALT.......not an end. He violated that agreement and therefore the war was rekindled based on Saddam's actions, intelligence (everyone chooses to forget Powell's satellite photos of the truck convoy hauling mysterious material out of Iraq when deployment was soon to become reality) and the intelligence that was obtained from intell agencies around the globe.

Whenever anyone mentions the "War in Iraq" I immediately correct them by stating, "Do you mean the War against terrorism currently focused in Iraq"?

As far as WMD's are concerned, just once, I would like to see our "objective media" ask General Pace how many military personnel currently and since the initial deployment of personnel to Iraq have been given the specific assignment of searching for and uncovering WMD's ! I would suspect that since our military is involved in fighting against a ruthless,often unidentifiable enemy, that no military personnel have been deployed exclusively to search for WMD's which I believe did and still exist in Iraq.

As you recall, it was the result of a thorough search, intell, or good luck that Iraqi military planes were found buried in the desert and the expansive/hi-tech control center was found under one of Saddam's palaces.

Finally, there are thousands of boxes of documents yet to be reviewed that may contain information about WMD's.

The point is, and you made it very well, "This is 'The War on Terror', not the 'War on Al-Quaeda". Good post.


EODGUY

[MitchellC]

Irrelevant. Saddam violated the 1991 Cease Fire agreement, and we knew he was trying to obtain WMDs. That is the bottom line, he didn't deserve the benefit of the doubt. This is "The War on Terror", not the "War on Al-Qaeda."

The question leading into the war was whether or not we could determine with confidence that Saddam's regime actually did not possess at the time - much less did not have designs on getting in the future - WMDs. The pathetic attempts by the UN to make a determination have received a white-washing by the media and thus the war has easily been branded as needless if not evil, but the truth is that, regardless of the left's alleged ability to know (by power of ideological speculation) what Saddam was and wasn't up to, the invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam was the only way to have any assurance on the matter.

Further, everyone seems to buy into the Chamerlain-ite line that Saddam would have been of no harm to anyone had he been left alone and that we should have ignored his violation of a whole slew of agreements...

My fear now is that this entire episode will be used in the future to prevent another Iraq-type action, with politicians and 'intellectuals' convincing the public to accept some ridiculously arduous standard of evidence before taking action, thus buying time to plot and act for those who are obviously our enemies.