As I recall he promised him. Doesn't make any difference.

One of my concerns regarding the Middle East is that the US is already disliked over there. Toppling Saddam may well provoke the same reaction for them WTC did in the US.

There doesn't seem to be a resevoir of good will toward the US among any of the folks except some of the Saudi and Jordanian leadership. And the US is busy alienating the Saudis. I know, the bombers were Saudis. And, they have been all over the world, but they trained in the US, in plain sight, for years.

And the people have been subjected to an anti-US media for a long, long time.

For instance, the Iranians still remember the repressive regime of the Shah and the SAVAK, who was installed by the US and trained by the CIA. We in the US have forgotten that, actually, didn't know how repressive the Shah was, and weren't aware of the hostility regarding the training of the SAVAK. It came as a complete surprise that they hated us, and took the hostages. We as a country were very, very lucky the hostages survived.

In Iraq it's been worse. And, Iraqi dissidents have been courted by the US, and when they've gone out on a limb the US hasn't followed through with the promised aid. We have no credibility with them.

I may be entirely wrong, but without some support from the people in the countries we want to influence, the best we could do is install another repressive regime or two which might last for a little while. The rebound, as with Iran, could be fierce.

At worst, we could provoke another WTC reaction.

It might be wise over there to walk softly and not carry a stick. There's just one heck of a lot of 'em, and we can't kill everyone.

Arf