Presidential Debate

[Medicine Man]

For a homicidal megalomaniac like Saddam, logical has nothing to do with his actions.  You might suppose that a secular Iraqi regime would not make alliances with fundamentalist extremists, or even sworn enemies, but you are likely to be wrong.  Even if you review the documents just released by Charles Duelfer, you will find that Iraq went to extreme lengths and made deals with anyone to shed the yoke of sanctions.  One of the most shocking to me was the revelation that Iraq even dealt with Iran to smuggle oil to UAE.

And, there are many, many more "coincidences" and testimonies.  I'm not conviced that there was no link.
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You're not sure that there was a link either. Without Saddam representing a clear and present danger to the US, the full on frontal assault of an Iraq invasion is dangerous overkill. You see, it is not enough to speculate that Saddam *might* be tempted to align himself anti-American terrorists. You have to be able to imagine a scenario where he would realistically give those terrorists WMDs and he has to actually *have* the WMD to give.

I'm not arguing that Saddam didn't need to be dealt with. You are right -- he probably was waiting for the sanctions to end so that he could rebuild his regime *and* his stockpile of banned weaponry.

I'll go one step further: I'm positive that he *would* have collaborated with terrorists, if given enough time. Maybe Al-Qaeda, maybe someone else. He has supported Palestinian terrorists in the past after all. He didn't give the Palestinians WMDs however, even when he did have them to give.

So sooner or later, Saddam was going to have to go. Leaving him in place was going to become a security risk, if it wasn't already.

My main problem with the whole Iraq invasion was how it was executed -- ignoring all of what should be the primary imperitives of the so-called war on terror. Disbanding the Iraqi army and border guards, occupying the country, and eventually turning the population against the west. In a global struggle against non-state actors, we need to prop up the states, even if we eliminate their leadership. We also need to separate the terror groups from their ever widening base of support, which means rebuilding the muslim world's faith in America.

Bush banged his fist on the table, but he didn't bang his fist on the right table.