[Selara]

That is a well thought out and perfectly plausible argument and one I don't disagree with. But when our administration and media try's to sell this as a war to avenge 9/11 then I object. And if they were to advance your much more sane argument as a reason to send our sons to death the majority would object as well. I don't any American to die for a lie- and the lie this administration and much of the media is trying to sell is that if we invade and conquer Iraq we avenge 9/11. That is a lie.

To my knowledge, other than posters, the current debate on Iraq revolves NOT around 9/11, but the threat of WMD. Now as to the War on Terror, which is supposed to be on all terror, Iraq did not really come into it UNTIL Saddam brought it to the table himself. How? By his very public pay off to families of homicide bombers.

Looking at what evidence I can see, I ask myself, does Iraq indeed have WMD? Very probable.

Next, would Iraq use such weapons? I believe that Saddam would very much LIKE to use them. He obviously has put great time, energy and resources into them.

Who are his most likely targets? American and Israeli interests and people.

What would set him off? Ahh...now that is the wild card. His public behavior is indicating that it would not take much to set him off.

Consider this, if the American people become convinced that Saddam has WMD and would use them against us, or Israel, then would it not look downright irresponsible of the government to attempt to eliminate that threat?

Thus it would not be a lie, unless you are not convinced that his WMD poses no threat to the US or Israel.

As to Sept 11. Americans know full well, who the majority of the hijackers were. They know full well who were the deadliest fighters in Afghanistan. They know full well who is pumping out the money as protection for themselves, and to the injury or death of others.

It would be insane to take on Saudi head on, at this time though. If it is a true theat from Iraq though...it would be taking out one bird, and severly weakening the big bird.

It would be in the best interests of our national security, we would remove a threat of insane destruction in that area of the world, we would reduce Saudi power and it's flow of money to terrorists. All in all, I still see it as the right and responsible thing to do.

[Burkeman1]

If WMD is the issue then I would point to the utterly insane regime of North Korea. This is a nation that sends ships and troops to probe the lines of South Korea on a regular basis. Just a month ago they sent in ships to attack South korean vessals. They have sent in Commandos to murder South Korean politicians in the last several years! We are talking about a leader who had orderd the kidnapping of South Korean Movie starlets he was in love with! He has launched missles over Japan and is devoloping the capability to launch missles to California! And what are we doing? We are helping North Korea build nuclear plants. This is a regime 100 times more closed than Iraq and we are helping him build nuke reactors. This is the same clown Bush Identified as part of the axis of evil but yet we continue to "engage in dialouge with".

Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Eygpt- these are our enemies- Islam is the enemy. But we want to placate both the corrupt dictators of these lands seething with Islamic radicalism and our own population wich demands blood. Thus- we have Iraq - which had less to do with 9/11 than did your local Arab 7/11 cashier.