WAR IN IRAQ

Good post, but I'm afraid you have not done very much research. Remember this debate is about the justification for war in Iraq...you went on tangents about irrelevant issues pertaining to the war in Iraq. I digress. The UN worked with Iraq for over 12 years after the Gulf Wars. There were also 17 UN resolutions drawn up against Iraq during this time. None of this worked and Iraq remained in material breach of resolutions even after 12 years and 17 resolutions. The resolutions specifically outlined that Iraq "cease immediately the repression of it's own citizens", and this never stopped for over a decade after the resolutions were drawn up. I think what's most important was Iraq's (Saddam) ties to terrorism. The Council on Foreign Relations stated in April 2003 that Iraq provided bases & training camps to terror groups. There was a clear link to them supporting Palestinian terror groups, Iranian terror groups, Abu Nidal Organization, Hamas, Arab Liberation Front, and most importantly, Al-Qeada. Saddam gave freedom to wanted terrorists in violation of international law. For example, Hamas, one of the most prominent terrorist groups in the world, opened an office in Baghdad in 1999, the same year Saddam Hussein offered asylum to bin Laden after he was wanted for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. http://edition.cnn.com... Iraq has also hosted conferences attended by Palestine Islamic Jihad. These groups are at the forefront of sponsoring suicide attacks against Israel. Iraq harbored Al-Qaeda, headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was an associate and collaborator with Usama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda lieutenants. Zarqawi operated a terrorist camp in Kurdish areas in northern Iraq and Baghdad actually had an agent in the most senior levels of the radical organization Ansar al-Islam that controlled northern Iraq. In 2000, this agent offered Al-Qaeda safe haven in the region. Considering Zarqawi was found and killed in Iraq in 2006 leaves little doubt as to the truth of the Iraq-Al Qaeda connection. http://www.cfr.org... The United States has a responsibility to look out for our allies in the time of need and to ensure that countries ran by dictators don't get their hands on weapons that can be used to destroy our allies or massive amounts of people. Many people feel that it's not our place to police the world, but if not the United States, who's going to protect our allies and step up to the plate to stop these leaders from committing unspeakable acts against humanity? The argument that Iraq had or was trying to develop WMD's started way before this administration. The prior administration and a long list of democrats felt the same way. A lot of them spoke out against his possession or desire to possess them and more than a few stated they needed to be stopped. http://www.freedomagenda.com... While no major stockpiles of WMDs were found, there were bits and pieces that were unaccounted and found hidden in various places. There were thousands of containers of deadly chemicals accounted for by official inspectors in 1998. Upon their return in 2002 these chemicals were nowhere to be found. Iraq was ordered to produce these stockpiles or account for their destruction. Not only did they not produce them or account for them, they outright ignored this order from the official inspectors. http://news.bbc.co.uk... http://www.iraqwatch.org... http://www.un.org... Don't you remember that Saddam himself more or less bragged about his possession of WMD's and that he would use them if he had to. I don't think we can just ignore statements like that, especially given his lack of cooperation; we needed to stop him to make sure that he didn't use them. It's called being pro-active. Iraq didn't have to be an immediate danger to the United States for the invasion to be justified. The US was involved in many wars over the years where our country was never in danger. We do what is in the best interest of our allies, and the whole world collectively. Thus, the war in Iraq was and is justified.