>Jim,
>
>>The Iraq war certainly was not a question of 'damned if you do and damned if you don't'. The U.S. would not have been damned if it did not invade Iraq. And who knows, but the Iraqi people just might have been free and secure today!
>
>When was the last time a despotic dictator ever stepped down because he suddenly had a realization that they were doing the wrong things to the people under their rule?

Never, that I know of. But then I don't know of any other case where a ruler had WMD inspectors running around the country, had 2 no-fly zones strictly enforced over his own territory, had been under full embargo for about 10 years, had children dying left and right because palaces were more important to him than medical supplies, etc. Who can say how long he had left, given that the U.N. was on his case. My feeling is that there were lots of avenues left to pursue, with the threat of war hanging over his head. And sooner or later the people might have realized that revolt was preferable to the status-quo.

On another note, in another message you said that Saddam had sent his WMDs to a friendly country.
Do you not think that sufficient people were interrogated by those charged with finding the WMD post-war for that cat to have clawed its way out of the bag? And the only viable option seems to be Syria. Don't you think the word would have spread by now?
>
SNIP