1) It would not have been only our troops and the tommies facing this crap - others would have been along.

We could be killing Frenchmen instead of Americans. I can see the point, but I don't think it's much of a selling point for getting France on board.

2) A UN force would be viewed as an occupying power by fewer Iraqis - without the support of the people, guerilla operations can not function.

I see no evidence that this would be true. It is a lie that the insurgency and Islamists are operating with popular Iraqi support, and I see absolutely no reason why those few who are supporting them would not do so if the troops had blue helmets instead of brown ones.

Along these lines, I want to remind you that if the Israeli expansionists had of not blocked the implementation of either Camp David or Oslo, bin Laden never would have had enough popular support to mount his 9/11 attacks - the general populace would have turned him in.

The current leadership of the Palestinians wants Israel dead, dead, dead, dead. Not two states. One. Palestine. This is easily confirmed by looking at what Palestinians tell each other, not what they tell Colin Powell.

Until liberals are capable of wrapping their minds around the uncomfortable concept that not everyone can be made your pal by sitting down over a table with a couple of lattes, they will never get anywhere with Middle East issues or any others.

3) A UN force would have made it possible to get out faster - there would have been an easy and well defined way to get out.

I'll agree to that one. The U.N. forces would have run shrieking like little girls the second someone started really shooting at them. That bomb at the U.N. headquarters in Iraq blew them all clean to Cyprus.

4) A larger UN inspection team would have made it easier to find Saddam's WMD - and they would have been able to operate in a better environment.

The "cooperation" of Iraq with the U.N. is a matter of record. You cannot disarm someone without military action unless they cooperate. It doesn't matter how many U.N. people are running around, if they are only running around where they are allowed or expected.