Ter - *sigh* I agree with a lot of what you've just said to Ake. But your delivery could use some work! If you take that tone with people, it's not really surprising that you wind up in a siege situation where everyone instantly assaults your point-of-view, never mind whether you have a case or not!

Ake - Ter was unnescessarily rude, but he was also largely right. I would be interested to know on what basis you believe that Iraq "was in the process of implosion"? That "Saddams regime would have had only a few years to go", or on what basis "the West had been forced (my emphasis) to withdraw support from the tyrant"? I know of no evidence, apart from wishful thinking, that suggests any of these arguments are remotely plausible!

Incidentally, you know full well that Saddam had happily survived several years of sanctions unaffected, and it is to be noted that many of those opposed to the war were also opposed to sanctions & insistent that they should be lifted. Saddam was killing @80,000 Iraqis year on year. Your notion of "evolution" might eventually have been borne out, but at what cost? How many more hundreds of thousands dead Iraqis before your hoped for implosion?

And how is the aftermath of the war better or worse for the Iraqs than that hypothetical "implosion". One uprising had been tried, failed, & cost (I think) considerably more lives than GWII has, or probably will. A successful revolution, a descent into chaos, & yes, probably a Fundamentalist government almost as bad the original... How many lives would that little lot have cost? "More lives than GWII has, or probably will", I suggest. History shows that revolutions generally produce chronic instability or succeeding repressive governments. Saddam himself achieved his position effectively by revolution. "Benevolent" invasions have usually provided a better solution & more quickly.

I never thought the war was a good thing. I did think it was the best course, if only because it was the least of available evils. It was a profound mistake to have used WMDs as an excuse, & frankly if Daddy Bush had had the balls to do job properly first time round, we wouldn't be having this discussion now! But that's politicos for you, & the Bushes are not a particularly 'ept' example of the breed!