Jesus, now Hussein is a terrorist. I thought he was the despot tyranical leader of that massive threat to the American way of life and man on the verge of using weapons if mass destruction against us? It just keeps getting better and better. How is Hussein any more of a terrorist than any world leader? How is he worse than Bush who bombed innocent civilians, by accident, on numerous occassions? How is he different from Clinton who ordered the launch of cruise missles into Iraq? He's different because WE won the war and HE lost. WE get to write what WE like about the story (nee truth) that we are most comfortable with.
Maybe I am indeed naive like you say, but I just do not like to see a double standard of invading a country with the excuses like Wolfowitz used (threat to the US, WMD, terrorist links, intimidation to his people) when that same brush can be applied to several other nations that are a more serious threat and have direct ties to al Qeada. If you're going to invade one, prepare to invade everywhere, which to me is an extremely poor strategy.
As I've said all along, this is a battle that needs to be done through diplomacy, education and the use of small special forces units. Large military intervention does nothing but create a larger problem. Small, nimble, reactive forces that can traverse borders efficiently is what will track down the terrorist threat. While that is taking place you work from the other end via diplomatic means and educate the masses. Education is the most pressing issue in this argument IMO.
And maybe I am naive to believe that if we spent one days bill that is being rolled up in Iraq (a billion dollars a day) that we could re-educate the region in a decade, but I do believe that is possible. I also believe that if we spent the money from one month ($30 billion) we could secure our borders and be safer from any terrorist threat on US soil. Maybe I am kidding myself. Maybe we, and the world itself, is a much safer place with the United States occupying the second most holy land Islam has to offer. Time will tell. A lot of innocent people are dying for all the wrong reasons IMO, and we are NOT sticking to the goals outlined after 9/11.
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