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Originally Posted by Zen
And the thing that bothers me the most... the single most troubling event is the fact that as a world leader, a country of freedom we invaded another country and removed its leader without UN / NATO consent.
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Well thought out post Zen. Nice job. We invaded Europe two years after Japan, partly because we had to build up our military power which had not only been hurt by the Japanese attack (it had also been allowed to decline after WWI) but also because FDR had to convince America that Europe was also our fight. Even back then there were anti0war people saying it was not our problem. It is also reasonable to say that Vietnam and Korea were "defensive" in that our "allies" were under attack. But America itself was never in any real danger. (unless you believe the Domino Theory) However, (and only history can judge whether we were right or not) in the case of Iraq, I believe it is safe to assume that we were in real danger. We had already been attacked. Intelligence reports (although the future may find that they were not accurate - hindsight is always 20/20 - but we can only judge the decisions made by the information that they had at the moment of decision) showed that Iraq was in some way aiding the people that attacked us, and Saddam had a history of surprise attacks...just ask the Kuwaitees. Even President Clinton thought that intelligence reports that President Bush had were accurate.
BTW - it is my recollection that we went to Croatia to prevent the continued genocide. Why then isn't that enough reason in Iraq? Could it be because Iraq was more profitable to a few of the UN members than Croatia? I have no problem going in without UN approval. How can the UN make a decision about going through with their ultimatum to Saddam when guys like Germany and France are making a killing selling him stuff? They point the finger of blame at the US and yet they were selling Saddam the very stuff that made him feel he could defy the UN. Shame on them.
But like I said, the war itself is not the point of the thread. The point is that we have lost less men than in just about any war in history and yet to hear people talk you would think that every day is another D-day or Sharpsburg.