Hi Peg,

In your post above as Guest:

Firstly:

"YOU the one not paying attention to current headlines, since you seem to think Bush is now being a good boy and doing just what the UN tells him to."

Maybe you are paying too much attention to current headlines, while failing to match that up to exactly what is going on.

Secondly:

"You are ignoring what happened in the early days of this most recent line of aggression against Saddam Hussein. Before he declared he was going to go the sane route and proceed with weapons inspections, the news headlines said Bush was calling for an invasion of Iraq within a week to two week's time!"

Your remarks prove the point made above and completely ignores the fact that it was stance taken by the President and his Administration that brought the United Nations to its senses with regard to its responsibilities - That stand and that stand alone got the Iraqi authorities to issue the invitation to the weapons inspection teams - nothing else did that.

Thirdly:

"This is about the next election. This is about not being able to hunt down Osama bin Laden. This is about justifying the enormous military build-up to the tune of billions of taxpayers' dollars in the last few months. This is about oil. This is NOT about who poses a threat the United States."

Oh yes of course - its on the check list of every democratically elected leader - "Six months to elections Sir. Who shall we declare war on." Complete and utter BS.

Costs of maintaining the military would be roughly the same irrespective of the situation, they are still there, you still have to pay for them. The US has seen increased costs due to call up of reservists - that was done immediately after 911.

Explain to me about how this is about oil? Loads of people have mentioned it none have explained it - primarily because it is also total BS.

So far the President of the United States of America has accomplished the following:

1. Suceeded in getting the UN to act with respect to a situation it was quietly ignoring in the hope that it would just go away.

2. Suceeded in getting Iraq to permit the return of weapons inspection teams

3. He is well on the way to getting a new resolution from the UNSC that will allow the UNMOVIC teams to do their job effectively, without Iraqi interference.

All the rest is just so much Magpie chatter - as I believe I said in my first post on this topic.