The first part of my post above has a condescending (sp?) tone. Sorry.

I was just trying to say, there are problems and then there are Problems. I keep hearing about the mass graves they are continuing to find all over Iraq and it's becoming even more obvious what a terrible monster Saddam was. He must be personally responsible for millions of deaths. If Iraqis can't afford gas for a while, well, at least they aren't going to get strung up by the police and electrocuted, or shot and buried with hundreds of other victims of the regime.

It looks to me that short of war, there really wasn't a way to remove Saddam from power, and further to ensure that his disturbed sons simply didn't pick up where he left off. Saddam wasn't touched by the sanctions, and too many countries didn't take them seriously in any case. France, Germany and Russia were apparently quite content not only to have Saddam in power, but also to make sure he was personally comfortable. The UN program wasn't a case of "food for oil," it was more like "palaces for oil."

Introducing the tenants of democracy and freedom into a part of the world where tyranny has blocked them for decades is a worthy goal...in fact, it may be the only way to prevent an eventual and completely disasterous collision between the Arab world and the west.

Just an opinion...