Sadam was a threat because he would have destabilized world markets. That is a legitimate national security concern. Just like we had a valid national security reason for attacking Iraq in 03. I’m not arguing nor have I ever argued that Sadam and Iraq was not a threat to the world and therefore us. I’m arguing strategy. We should have bombed Iraq until we had a formal declaration of surrender. We then should have laid out our demands backed up with force if needed. The people in Iraq know better than we do who the bad guys are in their country. Look at how many of them help the insurgencies or at minimum do not turn them in. They would figure it out real fast what it is they need to be doing. As far as the countries like Iran sending in foreign fighters, you strike Tehran from the air. While bombing should always be targeted, we should never limit our actions based on fear of collateral damage. Look at how WWll was fought (the last all out, unlimited war) and tell me in all seriousness that the fear of collateral damage limited our actions. It did not. We had the luxury of conducting day raids because the British had firebombed entire German cities and we didn’t have to resort to that in Germany. Concerning Japan however, tell me in all seriousness that our military actions were limited out of fear for collateral damage. You can’t and be honest because they weren’t and that was the last war where they weren’t and it’s the last war we won. We won in less time than it’s taken to reduce violence in Iraq and we were fighting two super powers.