Anyone who sees the same degree of nuclear responsibility on Saddam's part that they see on the part of the US is not much of a pragmatist himself.

I dunno about how pragmatic such a view might be, LEJ, but it certainly wouldn't qualify as realistic -- he already demonstrated that with his tanks in Kuwait. To extend what you said to LH, the invasion of Kuwait was unlawful, regardless of justifications offered on moral or historic grounds. The fact that Iraq considers Kuwait "really part of Iraq" is not a legal position.

Imagine that "Americans consider, for example, that Mexico and Canada should become annexed to the United States, adding their multiple states to our fifty. It makes sense, and was always inherent in our Manfest Destiny doctrine which is time-honored. We should never have stopped at California. Any laws that don't take this into account are of course ill-conceived and can be safely ignored".

Doesn't quite add up, does it?

A