Jeremy wrote:
] Elonka wrote:
] ] ] The United States' invasion of Iraq was not a great idea.
] ] ] Its only virtue was that it was the best available idea
] ] ] among a series of even worse ideas.
] ]
] ] This is pretty much how I feel about it.
] ] There was a problem in Iraq ...
]
] There are lots of places with "problems" that need "fixed,"
] but we aren't the world's handyman. We simply don't have all
] the right tools. No one does.

Sure, there are plenty of things wrong in the world (the major problems in Africa come to mind immediately), and it doesn't mean that we have to go around fixing all of them.

Iraq, on the other hand, *was* our problem. We still had planes routinely flying there (and remember that Iraq was shooting at us over the no-fly-zones on a routine basis). Attacks on Western targets were being planned from inside Iraq, and it was clear that the infrastructure for further attacks was being built there as well.

It's my belief that if we would have ignored Iraq, the problems would have gotten worse, and more innocents would have died, both inside and outside Iraq. Eventually the problems would have gotten bad enough that the world might have decided to take action, and the end result would have been the same -- either a military invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam, or a military reaction when Saddam once again attacked some other country. He'd already attacked multiple neighboring countries, including Iran, Israel, and of course Kuwait... It was just a matter of time before he tried again. He *was* developing WMDs. There was an active Ricin program up until the day we invaded. Nuclear scientists had clear instructions to hide key parts, along with the associated documentation. Missiles were being built that were in obvious violation of U.N. guidelines. Multiple clear indicators existed, that Saddam was just waiting until he could launch another attack.

War is messy, war is ugly, and the loss of life is heartbreaking. But it's my firm belief that if we would have waited, there would have been *more* loss of life than there was when we acted as we did. It was a better choice, even if still an unpleasant one.

RE: Iraq