Kattie

So what if he did? We have contact with terrorist groups. Ever heard of the MEK?

Al-qaida got its funding from:
1)bin Laden who is helluva rich
2)religious charities

There has been no evidence Saddam has funded al-qaida's activities. Saddam repressed religious expression in Iraq because he feared being toppled by an Islamic coup. The only al-qaida were found in Northern Iraq, an area under our control not Saddam's. Saddam did fund Palestinian terrorists, but that is Israel's problem, not ours. Israel != U.S.

Oil is just the tip of the iceberg. The operation in Iraq was a shotgun marriage of hegemonical politics and religion. Bush had planned to attack Iraq right after 9/11. It was only after Tony Blair persuaded him to go after Afghanistan, that Bush sent troops to Asia. But oil companies will benefit along with Defense contractors and American firms involved with rebuilding. Rebuilding Iraq in our image and not theirs.

That was the plan anyway. You can't rebuild with oil money when the oil pipelines keep exploding. The Pentagon also thought Iraqis would throw down their gauntlets and welcome the troops. Even they admit now that they were wrong.

It is not the job of the U.S. military to play globocop and peacemaker. The role of the U.S. military is to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution and the land of the Republic. Not to make people play nice with each other. Revolutions must come from within and not from without. You can't justify a foreign military removing a president or dictator because that person is bad..If we allow that to become the gold standard, then any world leader is subject to removal at the whim of a foreign entity.

The "war on terror" will be as impotent as the "war on drugs". Why? Because it employs a military response to a diplomatic problem with no regard to the causes of terror. Eliminate the causes and you eliminate the threat. Besides, i hear there is a bumper crop of Opium in Afghanistan this year. We can't even control drugs in a country we control.

Let's check the progress so far:
1)North Korea wants nukes to deter the United States, might already have them.
2)Iran is getting nukes if they don't have them already. Has forged ties with India and Russia.
3)Saudi Arabia has expressed an interest in acquiring nukes
4)Israel wants to bomb Iran's nuke sites.
5)Afghanistan is still a mess
6)Osama and Saddam are still at large

Yes, the world is safer already!

Maybe Iraq has been on the map longer, but U.S. troops have been in South Korea for 50 years now. It's high time we brought them home. China and Japan will keep North Korea in line. The only reason North Korea wanted nukes was to deter a U.S. attack anyway(the crisis started with Bush's infamous "axis of evil" speech). BTW, there is already a plan in place for North Korea. However, the most likely scenario will be if North Korea acquires nukes, they will sell them to the highest bidder. Kim Jong-il isn't insane enough to fire a nuke with China next door. North Korea is dependent on China. To get North Korea into talks with the United States, all China did was turn off the oil.