Some Historical Facts:

I care. I care that the situation in Iraq was untenable and could not have been kept up indefinitly. Sooner or later, those sanctions would've been lifted. That is exactly what Hussein was hoping for so that he could have free reign to continue his WMD development.We contained him for 12 years with mixed results. Could we keep it up for 12 more years, 20 more? And after Sadaam's death? What about when one or both of his sons take over? It would have been the same thing all over again. Year after year, lies after lies, concealment then faked compliance then concealment and fake compliance and on and on.The point is that Iraq was a significant threat to the US because of his ties to terrorist organizations. It was simply a matter of time before Sadaam's WMD's found their hands into any number of Islamic terrorist organizations. He was also a significant threat to his neighbors and Israel in particular.Iraq offered nothing to the world except more of the same. If Iraq wanted to truly offer something substantial to the world community he would have been legitimate in complying with the demands of the world community instead of showing false compliance with UN mandatesThere was no chance Sadaam offered any type of peace brokering between Muslim and Jewish nations, that's a real joke.Frankly, Sadaam blew it and he'll pay the price. What many do not appreciate now is the very great positive effect this will have in the decades if not centuries to come.

Well, it is just plain silly to suggest that two trailers could steal away an amount of explosives that it took 40 trucks to ship there. Furthermore it's just plain sillier to suggest that these two trucks stole the explosives when, months later, they were videotaped by a KSTP crew embedded with the 101st Airborne, the first American forces at the installation.It's not even clear that those trucks are at the bunkers that even stored the explosives.

Yes, it is silly isn't it. Forgive me, I should have posted 40 photos with each one showing a different set of trucks, wait that would be 80 trucks, oh well, you get the idea. Of course they would need to be marked in some way so that we would know that Bush wasn't using the same trucks over and over again. Maybe paint them different colors? Really? the same two trucks were videotaped months later. How do we know that? Did we get the license plate numbers? Actually, if we ignore reality, it's not clear that those are weapons bunkers and it's not clear they are located in a weapons depot and it's not clear that the weapons depot is in Iraq. It must have all been staged by Bush at his ranch in Crawford. Yea, that's it, he had CENTCOM map his ranch.

Apparently, that bunker that the vehicles are parked in front of isn't the one that was used to store the weapons that the IAEA inspected.
Al Qa QaaNow if you want some real proof of WMD's to drool at then here they are:
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So now it appears that Tal and Monk have decided to go back to the game of arguing that Iraq was some sort of threat because of its massive WMD stocks and programs, which have apparently been swept under some massive rug, or flown away on a magic carpet.As ridiculous as that argument is, it has been dealt with in previous other threads which they were forced to flee earlier. This thread is about a totally different argument as witnessed in the OP.Since Tal started it, he should know this, and also know he has not come forward to respond to rebuttals of that OP. Are we ever going to get some response to the OP, or was this a giant bait and switch?

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holmes
"...what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.."(D. Bros)

I believe he meant that the soldiers were taped with the explosives at the Al Qaqaa facility.TTFN,WK

Sigh...The explosives, Monk, the explosives.Please, try again. Substituting ridicule for argument may score you points on Redstate.org or over at Powerline, but it doesn't cut it here. Try again.

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I helped scare an old person-I stopped someone from keeping more of their money-So what if people want to have say in the places they live and the cars that they drive-I gave money to an environmental group that helped keep us dependant on foreign oil-I help the enemies of democracy get stronger by telling them laws don’t matter-What if one day I need an abortion-Sex with an intern, everybody does it-I help teach kids around America that America is always wrong

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Do you know what your DNC stands for?

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I helped big business cheat an old person out of their pension-I ran up a trade deficit so high it will take generations to recover-So what if people want to have say in the places they live and the cars that they drive if they have enough money, they should be able to screw the poor and the environment if they want to-I support a president in cahoots with the Saudi royal family that helps keep us dependant on foreign oil-I help the enemies of democracy get stronger by invading nations upon faulty premises and torturing prisoners-What if one day I need an abortion, which have been obtained by rich people even when it was illegal in the US-Being a drunk and a cokehead for 20 years, every predident does it-I help teach kids around America that people better do what we say or we will kill them.Do you know what your GOP stands for?

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And if we had not invaded? Do you believe that Saddam would have been content with the status quo, sitting in his little box, as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright liked to put it?

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Well, both Powwel and Rice believed just before 9/11 that Iraq was well-contained and was not a danger to her neighbors nor to us.Do you suggest that we should be the world's policeman, invading every single country which might, someday, possibly be a threat to someone?

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How long would he have remained the "quiet dictator", content with the situation? The answer is not very long at all. He would have patiently waited for appeasment to kick in and sanctions to be removed. Then he would have had free reign to pursue WMD's while privately laughing at the stupidity of the West.

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Kind of like Pakistan, and North Korea, and Iran?Are we supposed to invade all of those countries too?

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Only in hindsight. They were there before the invasion, we know this from the weapons inspectors.

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No, that's not true.The weapons inspectors never found any WMD before they were kicked out by Bush.

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How long should we have maintained the blockade? How many years before we could feel comfortable that everything is Ok with Sadaam such that we could withdraw inspectors, no fly zones, sanctions, etc.? When Jar?

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Well, we've maintained a blockade of Cuba for quite a few decades.Is there a reason you think we couldn't maintain it with Iraq?(I am guessing it might have something to do with our desire to keep other countries from getting at the oil)

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The point is that Iraq was a significant threat to the US because of his ties to terrorist organizations.

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Which terrorist organizations?

So, you do believe that the US should spend most of it's time and resources policing the world and nation building, then?

If Iraq were a little island in the ocean maybe.

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I helped scare an old person-I stopped someone from keeping more of their money-So what if people want to have say in the places they live and the cars that they drive-I gave money to an environmental group that helped keep us dependant on foreign oil-I help the enemies of democracy get stronger by telling them laws don’t matter-What if one day I need an abortion-Sex with an intern, everybody does it-I help teach kids around America that America is always wrongDo you know what your DNC stands for?

??????
An economic blockade by not allowing our own citizens import things manufactured in Cuba. I assume that is what you mean. If we were really blockading Cuba then the refugees would not have to get so far out to sea before they drowned. We would have picked them up in Cuba's coastal waters and sent them back.While I disagree that we should have invaded Iraq when we did, there were still problems that were not getting resolved by the UN blockade. Add to that the problems experienced by the Weapons Inspectors. The only reason that Saddam became more cooperative is because of the direct threat of invasion. Even then his people still used delaying tactics when dealing with the inspectors.
Hiding something? Who's to say now? However, it looked suspicious.Tighter blockade maybe? That only hurts the poor in that country. Did Saddam really care about his poor people. Track record says...Nope!So, what's the answer? What should we have done? Perhaps we should have used our substantial influence in the UN to get some more direct action from that group?I think we should have just let Saddam go his merry way and only acted after he has invaded/killed/attacked. At least we would then get more people to agree with the actions we do. Besides, he would only kill Kurds/Kuwaitis/Saudi/Israelis, not us. Right?