1) Yes, Saddam is an evil dictator. His budget, however, is pathetically small.

2)Yes, he has killed his own civilians. However, remember that America has also used chemical and nuclear weapons on other nation's civilians, and its own armed forces.

3) Yes, he has, but Dubya has already started one war with huge loss of life for the civilians of the country he invaded. I don't think that the relatively small number of U.S. casualties makes it any better.

The problem is this: If the U.S. attacks Saddam, we send the following messages:

A) The U.S. has the right to invade any nation that possesses WMD's and has used them in the past.

B) The U.S. is above international law, as we fit into the previous category.

I think that to make such a declaration is incredibly arrogant and dangerous. It says that America can do whatever it wants, so long as it can provide a plausible lie as to motive. It will make us even more resented, both among Third World nations who fear that we will take the same stance against them, and industrial nations who will think that we intend to declare ourselves, in effect, the world's policeman, without any controls.