saddam wasn`t an imminent threat?.....
which time?
the attempt to assasinate bush?.....
the attempt to build a nuclear reactor?.....
the time he tried to take kuwait and gain a stranglehold on a large portion of middle eastern oil?....
the same time he burned their oil fields...as i said before,more dems voted to authorize the use force to invade iraq than to force him out of kuwait..i`ll never get that one...
.i think they wanted to try and embargo and sanction him to death...of course,we know now that the u.n. is so corrupt that embargo`s and sanctions are laughable......
if the dems had their way,he might still be in kuwait..
the time he lobbed scuds into israel as they sat by with their hands in their pockets...trying to start a potential full scale war in the middle east...compromising a large part of the world`s oil supply
just like the french and ww2......ignore them...maybe they`ll go away..
saddam would have to be flying an old b-52 armed with a nuke over n.y.c. for some guys to consider him a threat...
they don`t understand that homeland security doesn`t exclude our interests abroad...and what happens abroad impacts this country`s well being...
3 strikes and your out...saddam struck out 2 or 3 times...
or,leave him alone....maybe he can deny inspectors long enough...or elude their inspections....or kick them out when they get to close.....or never disclose whether he`s destroyed his bio and chemical stockpiles...
long enough to become another n.korea....because no one knew for sure....
from david kay.....weapons inspector. in the early 90`s....
"""I think we were able to accomplish something that, even in retrospect, I'm still amazed at. We were able to uncover a clandestine weapons program. Up until that time -- realize that the record of arms control is really confirming that people, who have no intention of cheating, are not cheating. The Belgians aren't developing their clandestine nuclear weapons program -- oh, big surprise!
Iraq was the case of actually being able to discover a program that the opposition didn't want you to.
Secondly, we were able, for the first time, to use new tools of arms control. And not just intelligence. Zero notice inspections did not involve intelligence. It involved a change of policy and will of the international community to allow inspectors to inspect without telling you in advance where you were going. The standard I.A.E.A. inspection before the war, and one that is still used today in most states: you're coming, inspectors are coming, six months in advance. They have to apply for visas. They have to get airplane flights. So, if you want to hide something, you have more than ample opportunity. We pioneered new tools and new methods of doing it. And I think that's terribly important over the long run.
But let me say, we did not fully understand the Iraqi program. The biological program was far too difficult for inspectors to find and really was not uncovered until the two son-in-laws defected.
Today, eight years after, they have not made what most people judge to be a full and complete declaration of their prohibited materials. Second, it turned out to be far more extensive.
In the nuclear area, for example, it turned out Iraq had spent over $10 billion in the 1980s to develop a program that explored practically every known way to enrich uranium, and to craft a nuclear weapon. This was not a small program. It was one that was so extensive, that as an inspector, when you faced it, your mind boggled. The largest team I ever took into Iraq was a team of 44 individuals, and we were expected to route out by ourselves this massive program? That was a challenge.
And then, of course, Saddam survived, and it became quite clear early on into the inspections, that this individual had no intent of giving up, not only his nuclear program, but his biological, chemical and missile program. So you were dealing with an actively hostile regime that was determined to frustrate the international inspectors."""
this was from the early to mid 90`s....and it continued for another 7 or eight years.....
why?...because saddam never came clean and denied total access...
