EB:

Its not that we (us evil ant-war folks) are blissfully/willfully ignorant of the WMD in Saddams Iraq, its that we (some of us anyway) see him as no more of a threat than any other WMD possessing inhumane tyrant. In fact, I am more concerned with the others because they are NOT completely deterred and in-a-box, like Saddam.

Some of us see preemptively starting a war when there is no clear and present danger to our country as the dumb thing to do- a bad global policy that others, like China, might be tempted to follow. The damage that this is doing to NATO and the UN is NOT within our interests. The UN is, despite the propaganda, more our whip than anyone elses and we have used it again and again to keep nations like China and the old Soviets in check.

Some of us feel that waging a war that is seen as illegetimate by majority world opinion (among our allies even) will do serious harm to our ability wield global power, and worse, will impinge upon our ability to get cooporation from nations in our REAL and JUST war- the rooting out of Al Qaida and other terrorist regimes.

I don't intend to retype all the arguments given in the thread starting with:
http://www.habitablezone.com/currentevents/messages/43145.html

In this thread I post all of my justifications for the above statements, none of which I have been convinced to abandon as yet, but I am perfectly willing to debate them and see if I am wrong. If you want to investigate the *reasons* behind a legitimate anti-war stance, please read them, comment, and I will respond.

It is interesting that you did not participate in that discussion, but are at the same time so willing to make characterizations of people who take an anti-war stance....

Davin