I was simply drawing attention to the utter gall of a great power which calmly and self-righteously informs the entire world for months and months of its intention to presently invade a small sovereign nation and topple its government, causing probably a hundred thousand or so immediate casualties (virtually all Iraqui, I am sure), and a great many more after that.

No other country in the world has this kind of gall, nor is permitted to get away with it by the international community...which can only look on in amazement, while its bought politicians try to act like everything is "normal".

None of what I'm saying is meant to imply that Saddam is a nice guy, so don't suggest that it is! That's not the point here.

Remember that the USA originally helped put in place, befriended, and armed the administration in Iraq that it now plans to "take out", finding them convenient at the time for the purpose of killing hundreds of thousands of Iranians! After Iraq is taken out, will Iran be next? Quite possibly. These actions will not be taken on behalf of the Iraqui and Iranian populations, but on the behalf of western financial and strategic interests.

I try to think of other imperial powers who had this sort of gall...and I come up with Nazi Germany, Rome, Stalinist Russia, Red China...what a lovely crew they are!

To consider Iraq as any kind of real threat to the USA is asinine. It is the USA which is a mortal threat to the very survival of Iraq, while an Iraqui attack on America would be simply suicidal and utterly self-defeating, as Saddam well knows.

Could the Boers at the time of the Boer War have attacked the British Isles? The Iraquis, comparatively speaking, are even less capable of fighting the Americans now than the Boers were of fighting the whole British Empire then.

It's ludicrous.

The only condition under which I can imagine Iraqui agents secretly planting and blowing up an atomic bomb in Washington D.C. is AFTER they have been invaded and massacred by the USA...then I could see them giving such an order, yes. It's called "revenge", and they would have nothing left at that point to lose, would they?

Saddam is not a religious fanatic, he's a pragmatist. Pragmatists do not make moves guaranteed to result in their own destruction, but once they know their destruction is unavoidable, they may well try to take as many of their opponents down with them as possible.

Keep it in mind.

American lives will not be made safer by destroying Iraq. Quite the contrary.

- LH