Selective Pesticides? We got 'em. They're in the Marine Corps, the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, and they have the ability to clean house very well.

But if the MIDDLE EAST is a problem, we should wait for THEM to ask for our help.

The governments of the region beg for U.S. support constantly. The people, on the other hand, seem to have a real problem with Western boots treading on their O, so holy sands. Crankdom to the point where, during Desert Storm, sand had to be shipped overland, at DoD expense btw, from outside Saudi Arabia to fill the sandbags for defense bunkers (“Hey, the Prophet may have touched that grain!!”). Do you know how many 15-20 lb sandbags it takes to fortify one (1) fox hole? Approx. 63 -- if your serious about stopping a bullet. We weren’t allowed to shoot the sand of Saudi Arabia either.

Violent with OUR money, OUR soldiers.

Yes. Agreed, it would be far -- well, at least a little -- better with a coalition force, but the region remains a threat to U.S. soil, so we should deal with it regardless. The threat is also toward ROW, but there is no provisions set up that require they help us fight their battles.

Containing Saddam (like a grounded misbehaving teenager) would be the better object.
Containing him.

That's what we've been doing for the past 11 years, but it doesn't work, and costs a lot of U.S. money. We contain him, but the unstable regions along the borders of Iraq allow that containment to slip. Just a little, but enough.

Protecting ourselves by protecting our borders and infrastructure.

Sealing our borders is an impossible task. Have you any idea how many cruise ships, tankers, freighters, and private vessels have docked along the U.S. coast in the past 15 minutes? No, neither do I, and I sure don’t wanna count ‘em, or pay the government to search every single one of them.

And if we do pull back from Iraq and end the current containment -- who's going to take it up?

Dan