Andy, I'll take a stab at a couple of your questions. And, I'm going to confuse my distinguished friends who think I'm on the "other side" by defending the current administration.
<font color="blue"> Why only Iraq?...Are we going to take care of the nuclear capabilities and WMD in other countries that are known threats, or are we just going to ignore those ones?
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The administration's answer to that is that each case is different, and each case is handled differently. And, in my opinion, they're right. Start with Afghanistan. We had real evidence that ***** Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were using that country, with the active help and assistance of the Taliban, as their headquarters and training grounds. We had already sent cruise missiles to hit a training camp, but missed Bin Laden. After 9/11, it was time to do the job right. We formed a true coalition with support from most nations, hit the country hard, ousted the Taliban and picked a good man to be the interim head of the country. They're still suffering somewhat because it takes time to rebuild a country, they haven't settled the warlord problems, and US involvement has slowed down in the last year, but they are certainly better off, and the world is certainly safer as more and more Al Qaeda members are caught or killed.
So, it's not just Iraq, we invaded Afghanistan as well. There were few protests, and wide allied support, because that action was widely seen as justified. For what it's worth, I supported it.
As most everyone knows, President Bush labeled Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the "axis of evil." There's a really funny satire out there that says that Lybia, Syria and the Sudan also wanted to be in the axis of evil, but were told that an axis can have only three members (tradition started in WWII with Germany, Italy and Japan). So, they formed the "axis of just as evil." (That's satire)
But, Iran and the Sudan have been more or less cooperating in the war on terrorism since 9/11. They have participated in identifying terrorists and searching for financial links. Lybia has agreed to identify all of its WMD and open for inspection, in return for dropping sanctions. While the current administration will take credit for this as a result of the Iraq invasion, I found news reports as early as 1999, shortly after they handed over the Lockerbie terrorists, that said the Lybia was warming to the West and in negotiations with the administration at that time. The West has responded so favorably to this announcement by Lybia, that Iran is reported to be considering the same type of move. The Sudanese, in addition to cooperating in the war on terrorism, have likely cut back or considered eliminating any WMD or terrorism projects after booting Bin Laden out of the country. The administration is continuing diplomatic discussions with these nations, as well as Syria and Yemen. There were many reports that Syria was "next" after Iraq, but after all our problems and expense in Iraq, my opinion is that I doubt it will ever happen.
North Korea is a special case, and the administration, in my opinion, is correctly handling it through discussions, negotiation and diplomacy. We have actually wisely backed off somewhat, letting China host the talks. Japan, South Korea and other allies in that area support this. China probably has more influence on North Korea than anyone, and they want to be seen as cooperating with us. Besides, they're probably tired of propping up North Korea. (That's me joking)
So, there are other ways in which to handle these situations other than invasion, some already somewhat successful and many others still ongoing, and I support the administration's efforts. That still leaves the question of "Why Iraq?", and I have my ideas about that, but that's a different subject.
None of the statements above are my opinion, except where I identified it as such. Every one was researched with Google searches, discarding those sites that are obviously partisan (in either direction), and using only direct quotes or news stories that appeared factual from a variety of respected sources. I'll be happy to furnish anyone with a list of my Google search phrases in a PM.
