Little Hawk, if you'll stop and think for a moment, you'll realize that Genghis' methods were quite humane for the time. After all, he destroyed one city with its inhabitants and got dozens of others to surrender with no loss of life on either side. I'm not advocating destroying the whole city of Bagdad, merely a few buildings. If we have to take them room by room, the people in them are going to die anyway.
Is it not MORE humane in the long run to let them see that we will destroy their buildings with no danger to ourselves but that if they will surrender, their homes will be spared as well as their lives?
The bogey of the house to house conquest of Bagdad with its accompanying loss of life simply doesn't have to be.
Saddam has threatened the destruction of our ally, Israel. I think that the defense of an ally is a fairly moral stance.
In 1989(I think it was) North Korea signed a non-proliferation pact. In 1994, when it was evident that they weren't living up to the terms of the agreement, Jimmy Carter brokered a deal which essentially bribed NK to give up nuclear research in return for two light water reactors. Bill Clinton signed off on it and it was a done deal. There was minimal inspection and NK went right on with its development program. They now have nuclear capability and can threaten our allies Japan and South Korea.
I, for one, do not wish to see Saddam Hussein in that same position and if the US doesn't insist on complete inspections WITH CONSEQUENCES we may wind up with a similar situation in the Middle East.
The nations of the world will do nothing unless they feel themselves threatened. After all, which countries went into Rwanda to stop the slaughter of the Tutsi by the Hutu? The Roma are being systematically persecuten in Eastern Europe. Where is the moral outrage from the world community?
Hitler threatened all of Europe. I hardly think that your analogy is apt.
I understand your antipathy for war and violence. I don't care for them myself and I've had a bit of experience in that area. But how do you get someone like Saddam to cooperate without the specter of overwhelming force if he does not.
I await your ideas.

troll