LittleHawk:
"You don't think that's enough? Is it really necessary to continue persecuting an already crippled country with an impotent military and starving its people for another 12 years or so, and bombing it now and then throughout that period, and dominating 3/4 of its airspace?
"

When a country has a cease fire, it is a ceasation of active military activity while the terms of peace are being settled. If a country violates the terms of the ceasefire, the war is back on. In 13 years, and 17 UN resolutions (thnx, TwoBears) there was NO PEACE agreement, and the ceasefire terms were violated numerous times. And WE dis not starve the country- the income allowed by legal oil sales would have been enough to feed the population if it had been used for food instead of military supplies and buildup. Why is it that the countries that were selling military hardware to Saddam, instead of food, were against the war? Could it be that they did not want to have a war that might risk their ILLEGAL (by UN resolution) trade?

"When Saddam attacked Kuwait, he was doing essentially the same type of thing as:

1. The Argentinians when they occupied the Falklands/Malvinas.
2. The Jews when they occupied Palestine and took it over.
3. The Germans when, in the late 30's, they re-occupied the Rhineland and other enclaves they had formerly managed under the Kaiser."

Let us be clear about this- Israel was created by the UN as a sop to the concience of the European Nations- Rather than try to deal with the Jews after WWII, they gave them a territory that Great Britain had taken from the Ottoman Empire in WWI. It was formed under UN mandate- The Arabs then attacked it.