No Tom. Lots of people have answered your questions. The issue here is you don't listen with an open mind. Since you seem to need to have things told over and over to you before your brain begins to grasp the views of the other side, here's what we should have done in Iraq in a nutshell:

NOTHING. Not now, not in the future unless:

1. Saddam attacks our country directly.
2. Saddam attacks our country through an intermediary. (builds a weapon and gives it to someone else to deploy against us.)

The obligation to stop or limit Saddam's oppression is not our responsibility. It is the responsibility of the those that are attacked.

Who gave us the right (morally or legally) to base war on assumptions? History tells us that not only is it wrong but it's a failed stategy. Name one instance where a country preemptively attacked another and ended up in a better situation a decade later. Speak about evasive. I've brought up this topic a number of times and have never received a satisfactory answer.

Until Saddam went outside his borders and attacked Kuwait, our leaders and citizens could've cared less about his abuses as long as he was selling us oil. I've always held out and often stated on here that I'm not even sure we were correct in defending Kuwait in Gulf War I. There's no way of knowing where that would've gone had we not intervened but very possibly the Mideast would've handled that problem on their own and we'd have never turned out a target to people like Osama. Of course I'm not saying that there weren't ethical reasons to come to the aid of our business partners but is also real historical precedence that actions like Hussein's attack inevitably lead to their demise not only from those attacked but often from within.

I'm not looking for isolationism totally but in military affairs it's not a bad stategy. Do you really think the bases we have in every nook and cranny of the world do more good than bad to our image as world citizens? Obviously you've never been in a foreign country where we have a sizeable military presence. Although many of the people in our armed forces are honorable and ethical, a good portion of the soldiers are not exactly shining examples of a cross section of American culture. Each night these rednecks pour out of the gates of the base into the bars of the local culture looking for sex and a good fight.

Tom, why you have this burning need within you to see bombs flying whenever things get testy around the world is a disturbing trait. For such an avid reader, you seem to have avoided the parts of history texts that detail the decline of countries that stray too far outside their own borders with their militaries or stick around too long after a legitimate fight.

Art