Here's part two of this overlong thread.

Why is Iraq seen as a terrible threat when Saudi Arabia, for example is not? After all, the people who organised and carried out September 11 appear to have been from Saudi Arabia, not Iraq.

What's so special about Iraq and Hussein. He carried out a brutal war against his neighbour in Iran, with American backing (remember the Iranian Airbus that was shot down by the USS Vincennes). He used chemical weapons and thousands were killed, at a time when he was being given effective backing by the US. He waged brutal war against dissidents in Irag, especially Kurds - not unlike the repression of Kurds carried out by Iraq's neighbour Turkey.

And he invaded Kuwait, which most Iraqis, including those who oppose Saddam, have always regarded as a province of Iraq, artificially detached from the country because it suited the Western oil companies and their agents in government.

A very nasty regime in many ways (not as bad as some, such as Saudi Arabia, especially if you are a woman), but is the idea that America goes round the world attacking all the nasty regimes? (I meant that as a rhetorical question, but I get the sinking feeling that that is in fact the idea, what with rhetoric about "axis of evil").

Wouldn't it be better to start at home, and identify how it could have been that the US Government helped to create such monsters - and to make sure it can never happen again.