And Fistful, I don't understand how any reasonable person could consider Iraq unproblematic.
Allow me to clarify. The world is a better, safer place without a country being led by a murderous, maniacal psycopath and his two criminally insane hellspawn. From jury-rigged extended range SCUDs to super-cannon to nerve agents to his nuclear program, he was a threat to everone in the world, and not just the thousands he was killing each month, and the tens of thousands torured and imprisoned in his own country. Sadaam invaded a neighboring country, tried to asassinate a former POTUS, defied UN sanctions and his own surrender documents, attacked a US navy vessel, and whether you want to believe it or not, did everything in his power to:
1. Aquire WMDs, and
2. Fool everyone into thinking he already had them, IF he didn't.
If you think he wouldn't have provided WMDS to terorists, you need to have your thinking apparatus checked. We are SO better off without him, even IF his absence has led to a prolonged "settling of old scores" bloodletting that he was able to temporarily suppress by the simple expediant of killing anyone who got out of line. If Clinton could send us into KOSOVO, to kill CHRISTIANS to protect MUSLIMS, we have TEN THOUSAND TIMES more reasons to be in Iraq.
If it's not a problem, how do you explain that to the parents of the kids who are dying over there?
1. "Your children VOLUNTEERED - there is NO draft."
2. "Your children joined the MILITARY - their job is to break stuff and kill people. Of course, if they were foriegn aid workers or Peace Corps or students or reporters or working in New York or the Pentagon or on an airliner, they still might be just as dead, but would not have had the option of shooting back..."
3. "Sometimes the enemy kills people back - that's war."
4. "In this country we have CIVILLIAN CONTROL of the military. Don't like your kids going to war - fine. Vote the bums out that sent them, vote some appeasing spineless jerks in, and start studying the Koran and Arabic. Can't muster enough voters to do that? Tough. It's called "democracy".
5. "Its a heck of a lot better to fight them OVER THERE with SOLDIERS that to supply CIVILLIAN VICTIMS over HERE for them to attack."
6. "We already FAILED to finish one Iraq war - thats a big part of why we are fighting a second Iraq war. Fail to finish this one, and you are REPEATING the same mistake, and dooming future children to fight and die in a THIRD Iraq war."
7. "Be it a man or a country, one you START to whup someone's butt, you better finish the job - and do SUCH a good job that neither he, nor his friends entertain the thought of a re-match."