Iraq. China is too busy making money from us to be a threat. This insane notion that because we do not go to war with China or other dictatorships is a transparent attempt to not go to war under any circumstance. Why Iraq? Because we have been in a state of war since the start of the Gulf war. They have continually breached the cease-fire agreement and are rebuilding both their conventional forces and WMD. So take your straw men back to Ramsey Clark and try again.
Sorry, I just haven't heard one decent argument why we should take out Saddam at this time.
So far, the arguments can be summed up as: 1. He has dangerous weapons, 2. He vioated UN resolutions (like anyone really pays attention to UN resolutions...) 3. He's a nutball. 4. He just might be nutty enough to use said dangerous weapons against the USA...
Gee, with that kind of criterea, half the nations of the earth should be attacked and destroyed. (Starting with France, of course...)
Don't misundestand, I won't be crying in my beer if the Marines decide to make Iraq their own little sand box; it's just that a shooting war WILL have consquences that go FAR beyond the removal of Saddam from power.
What our government is trying to PREVENT is radical muslims using an UNPROVOKED attack against Iraq as a rallying cry for an extreme jihad against the USA. I'm not worried a bit about Saddam, but I'm a bit concerned about the muslim extremists, and the crap they will pull if we aren't careful. We don't need to be helping Osama find new recruits for his cause...I've kinda grown fond of the Sears Tower and the Transamerica building over the years...
They can't use our attack on Afghanistan as a rallying cry for more recruits, since WE WERE JUSTIFIED in kicking their little behinds, and even the extremist recognize this. There isn't a nation on planet earth who was sticking up for the Tallyban, except Pakistan...and we somehow managed to help them "see the light" and turn against their next door neighbor.
But, believe it or not, Iraq and Saddam have a few POWERFUL friends on planet earth, inlcuding, but not limited to FRANCE, Russia, China and Europa. These freinds of Saddam are all lobbying Uncle Sam not to blow him up. And if I remember correctly, I think all these nice friends of his are on something called the Security Council...not that it makes a difference or anything...
So if we are going to roll over Iraq, we are going to have to wait until Saddam does something to force our hand.