quote:
Originally posted by Barry the Sprout:
Very good post Barb - my point exactly (and before I even made it - how did you know?).
Ronn, the point is that bombing again, or going in with troops again, might just strengthen his position in the country. We might be able to weaken his position if we lift the sanctions and start giving the aid now. I know it doesn't look palatable but it doesn't involve killing people and it would probably work. IMO anyway.
It won't strengthen his position if we go in to take him out. That was never an agreed upon objective in the Gulf War. Just to get him out of Kuwait and disable his ability to attack(not destroying his army completely, they wanted to leave Iraq the ability to defend itself against it's neighbors), and remove his biological capibilities. The only objective achieved was his ouster from Kuwait.
Feeding the Iraqi citizians will do nothing to eliminate the biological threat. Lifting the sactions and allowing Iraq to spend their money on anything they please will probably work? How? Do you think Saddam will spend his money on food? It wasn't his primary objective before, why would it be now. If the sanctions are lifted, his victory is complete. What would be his deterant to doing something again?
If they were complying with the UN, there would be no sanctions. Why should he not have to comply? Because he's willing to kill and we aren't?