A minor point, but not insignificant. About the one thing most ofvthe people posting here, on whateber side of the argument, is that the presence of posts by anonymous GUESTs are an unwelcome distraction. Regardless of what they might say. The medium is the m essage in this case.

I think the bottom line in this is: What would "Bin Laden" want to happen in this situation? And it seems to me clear as daylight that what he'd want would be for the inspection teams to be pulled out, and for US and the UK to launch a massive attack on Iraq.

On September 11 massive destruction and loss of life was achieved and a potential division between "the West" and "Islam" was opened, by means of a few people taking advantage of American civiian technology.

If there's this war essentially the same thing will happen, on a vastly greater scale, making use of American military technology. Massive destruction and loss of life, and the enormous widening of that breach bettween "the West" and "Islam" .

Septenber 11 cost the lives of a couple of dozen supporters. The Iraq war will cost the lives of a few tens or hundreds of thousands of people who might possibly have become supporters if they had survived. An acceptable price.