Should we bomb/strike Iraq

[Michael Murphy]

Should we attack Iraq? Honestly I don't know.

We believe that Iraq is stockpiling chemical, biological, and possibly nuclear weapons. We don't know, so we're sending inspectors. But how effective can these inspectors be? Asking permission before we inspect is like the police phoning ahead before they search a suspected crackhouse. Whether there was anything there or not, you're not going to find anything.

Yes, a deterrence. Look at this from Iraq’s point of view. You’re stuck in the middle of the desert, people don’t like you, and not too far away there’s a place called Israel which is armed to the teeth with weapons, some of them being nuclear weapons. That seems like a bad situation, does it not? A deterrence sounds like a decent alibi to me.
-Bill Gold

Bill, did you ever wonder why Israel is "armed to the teeth?" Iraq isn't the only country in the area surrounded by enemies with a history of being attacked. Ever hear of the Six Days War?

And about Russia and China... Do they want to attack Chechnya and Taiwan? Yes. Would they love to seize on U.S. actions as an excuse? Yes. Here I agree with Bill and Foto.

The main issue I have with Saddam Hussein is trust. At no point has he ever given the Untied States reason to trust him. On the other hand, I can think of a few reasons (Kuwait, the massacre of Iraq's Kurdish minority, the creation of chemical and biological weapons) that the dictator in Baghdad warrants at least close observation, if not outright removal.

I'm not saying I trust our own government much, either. But the problems in our government are our own doing. We routinely elect people into office that, quite frankly, we wouldn't trust to watch our children.

And on a side note... If the U.S. does invade Iraq and replace Hussein, no precedent would be set. This wouldn't be the first time an unfriendly government has been replaced with one more friendly to another country's interests. Note Afghanistan and Central America in recent times, and historically, Athens, Rome, and many other Ancient empires set up governments in neighboring countries to better suit their interests.