SNIP
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>Makes you wonder: because so much is coming out in the news media that typically goes on whenever the military gets involved (even in small skirmishes that are not even publicized) behind the scenes, it is starting to look like a 'major fakeout' that went 'wrong.' Perhaps war was NEVER intended at all from the get-go. Perhaps our government wanted to pressure Saddam into leaving the country by intimidating him with our military forces and physcological warfare methods and publicizing it all in the media is supposed to get the word to him. If that is the case, then it certainly backfired, because France and Germany and Russia are not cooperating and now it looks like the U.S. is forced to conduct a military operation afterall and ALONE.
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>Well, IF that were the case anyway...

We do know that truth is always the first casualty of war.
I had earlier hopes that seem similar to your theory here - that President Bush, who I believe is earnest in his belief that Iraq is a threat, wanted to scare Saddam into genuine disarmnament but in doing so used strong words that are now pushing him into a corner. IF that is close then I figure the media carries a large part of the blame for putting him there because they MAGNIFY any tiny detail beyond sensibility AND allow for NO inconsistencies/changes-of-heart/etc that might be part of the tactic. President Bush will never be in a position to say 'it was all a bluff' even if it was.