The 60's produced over 58,000 casualties. Wonderful track record. At least then, it wasn't over empire.
So then, if it wasn't over empire, what was it "over"?
The war in Southeast Asia had less justification for it than the coming enterprise. Bush has rightly pointed out that this is a war between the United States and the Terrorist International. This International includes, mind you, states that support outfits like Al Qaeda.
Al Qaeda and Saddam have had relations for some time. Indeed, Iraq has proven a hospitable R&R station for Al Qaeda since they were driven out of Afghanistan. There have been reports of Al Qaeda operating in Kurdistan as early as last December. Indeed, Saddam and Bin Laden have had conversations going back to 1998. Finally, the United States confirmed the story the Czech Intelligence never backed off of: to wit, that Mohammed Atta met with a Colonel Al-Ani of Iraq's Mukhabarat in April of 2001. But what's more, in Iraq the Al Qaeda have access to all of Saddam's goodies.
We know this. The Iraqis know this as well. We simply cannot afford to leave Iraq in the hands of Saddam. The fact that he could give these kinds of weapons to Al Qaeda, have them act as a cutout, then watch as they are used against us is a condition that we cannot tolerate.
This isn't about Empire. The last thing we want to do is to seize and hold a Middle Eastern country as a satrapy, especially when the Russians are pumping oil furiously and OPEC can't keep a price level worth a damn. The minute those Iraqi fields open up, the price of oil is going to go through the floor. We don't need the territory, we don't need the oil, but we do need to kill Saddam. Dangerous psychotics who have enough money to acquire nuclear technology should give one pause. And should spur the sane among us to action.
The appeasement of evil has many sirens, and the arguments for inaction are legion. These arguments are no less fatal for their being numerous, however, as the world found to its dismay in 1939.
Arguments about the sixties are irrelevant to the present situation, as are arguments about right and justice. This is about killing them before they get the chance to kill us.
Period.
Be Seeing You,
Chris