Sheesh, a WMD can kill millions. I suppose that's not a problem for you.
To destroy Saddam's arsenal of WMD and prevent him from sharing those weapons with his contacts in al queda, hamas, hezbollah, et. al. To prevent him from continuing his work on developing a nuclear device, and thus become another North Korea. And as a side benefit, we get to feel warm and fuzzy about taking out a brutal, maniacal dictator that has people's tongues cut out for dissent and tortures children in front of their parents for sport.
Just what lasting impact will it serve?
Elimination of the threats to our people and the rest of the world as described above. The establishment of a democratic (eventually) regime in Iraq that will become the staging point for other democratic revolutions in Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the rest of that den of tin-pot dictators.
Just because you do not have WMD, doesn't mean that you can't still kill a lot of people in some other sort of terrorist attack.
Uh-huh. True. What's your point? That's a total non-sequitor.
The point is to remove the huge supplies of chemical and biological poisons (and the means to deliver them) from Hussein specifically and Iraq in general. The lasting impact would be a significant reduction of those materials in unstable hands. It cost a lot of money and took a relatively high standard of technology to produce them. They can't be replaced easily or quickly.
Even if we defeat them and put some sort of government in power. How is this going to ensure the safety of the United States?
I hope we don't put a government in power there. Pres. Bush has specifically said he wants the Iraqi people to choose their own government. No one has said it will "insure" our safety but it obviously increases it. We have other fish to fry when this one is fully cooked.
Just because you do not have WMD, doesn't mean that you can't still kill a lot of people in some other sort of terrorist attack.
Right. True. You would prefer that we save our energy and just let the WMD option remain in Saddam's hands where terrorists (other than himself) might obtain them? In other words; "if he can get his hands on a stick of dynamite why worry that he has a nuke"? Explain that logic to me please.