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Originally posted by sgtclub
We now know that Saddam did not pose an immediate threat. Read the Duelfer report, he was certainly a threat and would have become more so had the sanctions been lifted, which is the direction the world was moving. But more importantly, anyone who doesn't believe something drastic had to be done in the middle east is just not looking out far enough.
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With all due respect, the Duelfer Report says his capacities were diminishing, not growing. He was not a threat to us. He was not cooperating with Al Qaeda, and he did not have any WMD to give terrorists. With our forces in Kuwait, he was no threat to Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. Turkey's military was easily superior to his, and he'd already failed with Iran. Who was he a threat to? And how so?
I'm not saying the Middle East was a bed of roses, but we've taken a suboptimal situation and made it worse. Who is the counterbalance to Iran now? Certainly not Iraq anytime soon. If we don't want Iran to dominate the region, we've got to stay there now, with all the problems that entails. Introducing democracy in the Middle East is a wonderful concept, except that we haven't figured out how to do it yet.
