On the contrary, I appreciate all the time you're taking on this thread, particularly since I'm so damn frustrating. ;)

I'll leave the delightful vision of the U.S. military's role as Europe's "stick" alone for now.

As for the "stick" working, we had most of our military surrounding Iraq, and Saddam's behavior--as far as real cooperation with inspectors and assisting with the disarmament process--did not noticably change. Real cooperation in disarmament--South Africa is a good example--is on an entirely different level. See also Libya, although I still have a "wait and see" attitude about that one.

I honestly believe that up until March of 2003, Saddam did not believe we would go through with a complete regime change. Given that we had just taken out the Taliban, I have no idea where this thinking could have come from. I don't think Iran would have behaved much differently under a similar threat, although of course I can't prove that.

It would be nice if Iran--and others--remembered that we could easily destroy targets in their nation without moving a single soldier out of Iraq. The B-2s are still parked on the tarmac. The Tomahawk inventory is looking pretty good, and includes a new tactical version that's half the price of the original and works better.