The numbers floating around about US casualties in Afghanistan are somewhere around 2,000. That's the price in lives that the US has paid to put an end to the danger from Al Qaeda.

If there's going to be shooting in Iraq, I want some other countries' troops being shot at as well as our own. That's my first reason, reason one, for delaying an assault on Saddam.

Reason two is that we can use the additional time to round up both the remainder of Al Qaeda as well as Saddam's agents.

Reason three is that after this is all over, and Saddam has gone, Iran is going to want to eliminate a country which has killed or ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of its people. The leaders of Iran are going to want an independent Kurdistan, and a separate Shiite country in the south of Iraq, and they can wait until after the US leaves Iraq to get them. The only way to deal with these not unreasonable desires of the Iranians is going to be by working with them through the UN, and this simply won't be possible if the US goes into Iraq alone.

Reason four for delaying the assault is that if Saddam doesn't come clean during the additional time, his own generals may take the additional time to deal with him themselves.

So raise the number of inspectors say by four times, as France, Germany, and Russia have proposed, give those inspectors say 45 days, as others have proposed to be sure that Saddam has dealt with the key items of his chemical and biological stocks, and the other items which Britain's Blair has set out.

Then if Saddam has not yet stopped, then France and the others should have to put up troops of their own, or at least have to staff civilian hospitals in Iraq or provide other humanitarian assistance.

I know the temperatures will be hotter in Iraq, and our troops will have to be away from home longer, and that costs money, and there will be another economic cost coming from the uncertainty. There may be other reasons and factors for going in now of which I am not aware, but that's the way I see it based on what I currently know.

Bush Snr had sense enough to delay the invasion of Iraq when his commanders told him they needed more time to get ready, and I hope that Bush Jr shows the same kind of common sense in dealing with the current concerns of the international community.

with prayers for the lives and well being of all of our soldiers abroad,
ep