The Saudis respond to force. They respond more easily to money, which is even better.
The Egyptians and Jordanians seem to have taken the hint that Israel is not a pushover nation, and have therefore learned to live in peace together.
The Syrians and Lebanese have both shown that they'll leave you alone for a while after you kick their ass. They occasionally need a reminder, though. Short memories, I guess.
And yet that entire region continues to be a problem. That is my point. You pacify one group, and the troublemakers spring up elsewhere. Sure, SA might be our "ally", but their Wahhabi terrorists continue to fight elsewhere. Working from memory, I believe Syria was a haven for Iraq's fighters and what was left of their "weapons of mass destruction", hardly an ally or even pacified enemy.
Nor have our attempts done anything to discourage the current rogues (Iran and NK).
I'll take substance over overtones, myself. Results, not talk. Results didn't occur until after we initiated the use of force.
Maybe you missed the part where his attempts were rebuked by Clinton. He tried and we said "we're not interested".
And why wouldn't it count as a victory? It's a good thing for America and for the world. Would you somehow prefer that Gaddafi keep causing trouble for everyone?
I was questioning whether it was a victory for the WoT considering he had been trying to come clean since before there was a WoT.
(Same goes for the elimination of Saddam - good for us and for the wider world. Definitely a win.)
I didn't say eliminating was a bad thing (actually, I said I didn't care one way or another about his fate or even the fate of his people), I'm questioning whether or not it was a good use of American money and lives.
Look at it another way, if we do have to take action against Iran or NK, do you think we as a nation are going to be willing to pursue it after years of muddling around Iraq. Will other nations be supportive (yeah yeah, I know we're supposed to go it alone, but we don't live in a vacuum)? We burned a lot of capital (men, machines, money, goodwill) on Iraq, capital that could be more useful elsewhere.
Chris