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Thank you. His query about not seeing chemical attacks in Israel wasn't confined to just the war time... he meant at any time over the last 10 years. His point was that if Saddam is SELLING the WMD to terrorists, and if Saddam is blatantly supportive of suicide attackers in Palestine (against Israel), then why are all those attacks "low tech." Why haven't there been any NBC attacks in Israel in the last 10 years?

My friend's main beef is with the bigger-picture motivation of Rumsfeld, et. al. and their world plan to spread American democracy far and wide... he also strongly believed that we botched the pre-war diplomacy, such as when Colin Powell used plagerized, outdated, and false documents to make a case to the UN. My arguement for that was that it didn't really matter whether we spent 3 months on diplomacy or 3 years, the outcome was going to be the same: France, Germany, and Russia were always going to be against it because they are complicit, and Saddam wasn't going to become a nice guy EVER. So why not go in now and save tens of thousands of Iraqi lives? He said "I think it would have served the United States better in the long run if we hadn't shoved it down everyone's throats."

I couldn't help but put that response in the category of "I don't care that innocent people are being tortured and murdered, as long as it's not in my backyard." Sometimes you have to do what is right, regardless if the world gets in a tizzy in the short term. Three more years of inspections and/or diplomacy wouldn't have made one iota of difference.

The ONLY reason that SAddam even let the inspectors back in was because of the presence of the big US military on his front porch. Does your friend expect the US taxpayer to foot the bill for keeping that size force around Iraq, and less available for other possible deployments if needed for three years?? Not to mention about the psychological effect on the troops of that sort of silliness.

I don't and never will understand libs.

Prairie

The distance limits placed on the Iraqi missiles would prevent Iraq from hitting Israel. During the Gulf War, Israel engaged in self-restraint, protected by our patriot missiles.

Everyone knows that Israel would have retaliated if Iraq made a move on them at any period after the Gulf War, and with the patriots, chances are, the debris would have landed in Palestine and/or Jordan or in their own lap.

I have no doubt that Saddam wanted Palestine (associated with the conquests of Saladin) and has worked closely with Arafat. Interestingly, a letter written by one of Saddam's sons and just found among his papers, verifies Saddam's intention to takeover Palestine after Kuwait.