[tbontob]

Originally posted by primitive:
Atrocities:
It's very hard to write something here without someone accusing me of supporting Saddam. I do not, I think he is scum and deserve everything that comes to him (But USA should not take it on by themself to act as prosecutor, judge and excecutor).

But I fail to see any connection between what happened 9/11 and Saddams weapons of mass destruction.
9/11 was done by 50 suicidal idiots armed with very low tech weapons (pLastic knives ?), on a budget of perhaps 100 K $.
Fundamentalist muslems don't support the US attacking Saddam (not because they love Saddam, but because they hate USA more).
Taking out Saddam will only increase the number of idiots willing to do such suicide missions, and the small sum of money needed will always be available.

Primitive has made some very good points.

I feel the U.S.A has found itself between a rock and a hard place.

It gambled that it would get U.N. support and lost.

It gambled that it would get a number of nations on-board with it and lost.

To not go ahead would mean some loss of face. Some nations may revise their opinion that the U.S. is a paper tiger which couldn't be further from the truth.

Major expense was incurred to no avail if they do not go ahead.

They said they would go ahead with or without a U.N. resolution and now they have to make good on it. I don't think they really reckoned on going it alone, but as a coalition, albeit a small one.

Will the U.S. win the coming battle of Iraq? I feel confident they will.

Will they win handily? Probably.

But they have lost the war of world opinion and confidence.

Since they are committed, IMO their only hope of salvaging what is left of their good name is to win the battle in Iraq, reconstruct Iraq quickly and then get out.

To do it they may have to hand Iraq to the U.N. who will finish the reconstruction.

The fait accompli coupled with proving a lie to those who claim the USA wants Iraq oil will go a long way to restoring world opinion and confidence in the USA.