[dirtboy]

This article missed the primary point - we couldn't have attacked until recently anyway. IMO the actual make/break decision regarding invasion was made after Blix's initial report to the U.N., and we have been building up forces ever since. The waffling of Turkey caused an additional delay, but now things are just about in place. What goes down in the U.N. has just been window dressing for some time.

[niteowl77]

This article missed the primary point - we couldn't have attacked until recently anyway. IMO the actual make/break decision regarding invasion was made after Blix's initial report to the U.N., and we have been building up forces ever since.

That's probably as close to the truth as we will get. A lot of people (even on FR, surprisingly) do not realize just how much of a toll eight years of WJBC was to our overall ability to fight, and there has been a lot of catching up to do before we could cash the checks we are writing.

I understand the exasperation people feel, but only up to a point- I will not complain about waiting to go in until my kid's unit is fully up to speed with their new NBC gear and the associated training.

[TLBSHOW]

we have been ready to attack iraq since last september

[johnb838]

I think it is not so much window dressing as the battle over "so let it be written, so let it be done", i.e. how the war will be looked at in future diplomatic confrontations and conflicts. A large part of it may be a temperance of the doctrine of pre-emption. We definitely don't want every country or tribe in the world with a gripe to be attacking their enemies and then claiming "Well the US made it ok". We want to be able to say we went every extra mile to accomplish a task that everybody agrees needs to be done before we took matters into our own hands and beheaded the snake.

I hadn't really thought of this until about 5 minutes ago. I hate diplomacy, could never be a diplomat, but if I were the President I might realize that it is the only way to minimize the impact of the law of unintended consequences.