re: #116 Atlas Fails

“Illegal” is a bit subjective in this context, I agree. Non-approved by the U.N. maybe? My point was, it would have been better to build an international coalition and operate primarily through airstrikes (see: Libya) than go in solo with guns blazing and fingers crossed. Even if our allies declined, certainly not an impossibility, it would have been better to wait things out until the time was right for a regime change on the Iraqi peoples’ time rather than ours.

Sadly, our nation can’t wait like that and hold its political focus. Bush used a great deal of political capital to launch Operation Iraqi Freedom, capital he likely would not have had except for 9/11, and that 9/11 capital was bound to dissipate over time had he waited. If the Bush administration was to move at all, it had to be on our timetable, not that of the Iraqi people.

Moreover, given how tightly Saddam held power, there is no guarantee that he would not have lived for another decade or two, only to pass his power to one of his murderous sons.