True, but his actions directly threaten US citizens, and our favorite protectorate, Israel. Also, Mugabe and the majority of other thugs don't have any realistic chance at nuclear weapon production. Therein lies the need to address him, first.
As for his troops shooting at allied planes, well if you had foreign planes bombing your country (without U.N. approval) you might fire back too. Why the surprise there? The indignation regarding the violation of U.N. resolutions seems to be a tad selective as Israel have violated a ton of them too, but no mention of that. So when is it OK for a country to violate a U.N. resolution? If it happens to be called Israel? Now I'll get accused of bashing Israel regardless of the truth of what I write.
Israel-basher. ;^) Okay, fine, leave the 'shooting at our planes' lines out of my list... there's still more than enough to justify our action.
Sure let's remove him, but let's not pretend it's about his potential to use a WMDtm. North Korea seems to be a far bigger threat as they actually have WMDtms, but we're choosing to go the diplomatic route there. Yeah, the U.S. is not likely to pick a fight with someone who actually has nukes which is how we can be sure Iraq does not have them.
It is BECAUSE they are more likely to use nukes (because they have them, and are actively telling us that they will use them), and BECAUSE they have the backing of China (one of only two nations that the US needs to fear and treat differently than the rest, because they are almost our military equal... the same reason we fought and won a COLD War against the Soviet Union, not a combat War). See the parallel? Nation with strong backing and/or nukes, NorthKorea, use diplomacy. Nation without strong backing, with nukes "merely" imminent, Iraq, use force quickly and decisively. It's not that difficult, unless you use the "well what about the other guy" arguments that every over-simplifying 13 year old uses. Yes, there are many criminally-violent leaders in the world, It isn't our job to get them all. It IS our job to get the ones who target US citizens (and our favorite protectorate, Israel), and to stop the ones who support those who target us.
Given the fact we have been aleady lied to about alledged Iraqi aggression (the baby/incubator thing), I have trouble believing the remainder, eg. gassing Kurds, etc.
Gee, so if one false rumor gets out, then every report is to be discounted, despite the fact that there are dozens of witnesses, thousands of photos, and physical evidence supporting it? You have the gall to refer to others as 'intellectually stunted' when you're so willfully ignorant as to ignore mass murder because someone falsely claimed, without evidence, that the mass murderer also broke a crib? Interesting.
North Korea has a very real chance at nuclear weapons production and have now threatened war if sanctions aren't lifted.
As for the gassing of the Kurds, I have no idea whether it happened or not and unless you were actually there, I don't know how you can be so sure either. That notwithstanding, who provided Iraq with the gas to begin with. Are we reaping a bit of what we've sown here?
Sorry, I trust the U.S. Government about as much as Hussein (especially given that we have a President whose grandfather was nailed for trading with the enemy) and therefore anything I am told by said Government is met with the utmost suspicion. I still await the security camera video of other hijackers getting aboard their repsective aircraft on 9-11. Maybe GW is a great man who has the best of U.S. interests at heart, but I would submit there are plenty of reasons to be weary.
Let me ask you (and others on FR) this question, do you believe the ruling class of this country are more loyal to average joe U.S. citizen or to the ruling classes of other countries?