Eddie,
Are you trying to say that he wasn't illegally shipping oil or shooting at our planes?
I won't take a position on the sanctions, or even the first gulf war as there are questions about the postering that went on before hand. But, there is no doubt that we had a signed agreement at the end of it and he was not following it. It can be argued that part of the reason we couldn't get other countries to agree to us going that they were prospering too much under the existing sanctions. It appears that Sadaam was. At the same time most of the UN was probably secretly jumping with joy everytime another bomb went off in Israel.

If someone takes a pot shot at me, I don't really care that they missed. I am going to shoot back. If we had faked a downed plane after 911 most of the world would have looked at the whole thing differently. Yeah, Bush said he would wait for the UN, thats' one of the reasons I think he is an idiot. As I state previously, I think we went in because of Israel, so what I am talking about is a better validation. No one wants to comment on this aspect, but rather just beat up on Bush and the conservatives. Remember, congress voted to go and Hilary won't promise to withdraw. Maybe, they know something but are afraid to present it to the American people. Maybe, they are just beholden to the same big business pressures that Bush is. In any case, it doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon.

If you wonder about the validation issues, look at how little is being said about Afghanistan. One could easily argue that the threat is gone and that we should leave. Bush has already said it is not about catching Bin Ladin anymore. Since they started the mess, why should we stay to clean it up?
I am not trying to take a postition here, just pointing out that it isn't happening (at least not on the scale of Iraq).

In the end, I feel we probably had to go or felt we had to go into Iraq, and were looking for a reason. How big business may have profitted from it is another story. The two issues should not be looked at as the same. I say this because I think leaving or not doing anything is not an option at this time. Rather, we should be doing our best to set up a system that profits the people of that country. I am not sure that is happening.