Hi Mark,

To answer your question:

Milosevic never had WMD or attempted to acquire them. That is the most significant of the disparities. His slaughter of, as he termed them terrorists, was a typical Serbian/Russian Putin-esque response to perceived or real ethnic enemies.

HOWEVER he was not daily firing upon US planes, attempting to assassinate our former president or paying families of suicide bombers. As far as I am aware, he didn't get his jollies out of personally torturing people or having them put feet first into plastic shredders.

If Saddam were not pursuing WMD and were content to be just another bloodthirsty maniac to his own people like many who are cast in his mold, I would have no problem letting him be.

But his defiance and blatant aggression towards the US combined with that WMD drive makes him someone who has to be taken out of the picture in some manner.

Bottomline? Milosevic REALLY presented ABSOLUTELY no threat to US interests whatsoever. He was a headache for Europe because of his conflicts causing refugees (aka Euro-self-interest again: "you refugees aint gonna burden my socialized system!")

Europe should have handled him if they wanted to. We did - look at the THANKS we get from all those grateful Europeans.

They got what they asked for - a US with a badge who goes around coralling the bad guys, so they can decorate their apartments with Scandinavian styled abstract furniture and worry about the latest potential threat to their comfy socialized programs.

Larry often points out that Europe should carry the burden of their own defense. However, the reason they do not - is because the socialist system can't expend much on defense without taxing the people more or cutting back on all their social programs (all those long vacations don't help). So really the US foots the bill for most of Europe's healthcare as well.

That's the difference. It's not a Clinton thing - though Clinton's personal problems certainly made it even harder to accept he gave a tinkers dam for anyone in the former Yugoslavia, turning the whole affair a feast for cynics.

It is sad it came to this. I really wish Saddam would've chosen exile. If the whole world united and said, "Saddam it's time for you to retire" I think there might've been a real chance.

To be blunt, he's not worth US lives. It's only his WMD threat to many more US lives that forces our hand to scoop him up like so much dog-poo, nobody else wants to touch.

SDAI-Tech1