Jeez Reg. We as a country will gain very little as a direct result of this conflict. Besides, it's not always all about us. Think about what others have won, directly or indirectly.

Well, I guess if our military has now been deemed the World Police Force and going forward we'll dictate who does what and when and it's ok to devote huge sums of American taxpayer money and the lives of our children to this effort because we know the rest of the world is not capable of making their own decisions then I think that's peachy. I guess I am pretty selfish then next to that idea.

You must be a blast at Christmas.     ;^))

I think you'd get mixed reviews on that...

• Libya gave up their WOMD

Unless I'm mistaken the report said they really didn't have much to give up. So, that's not much to hang a hat on. 

• The Middle East has more stability and less sabre rattling

I believe the Buscho boys would like you to believe that and if they could they'd have a B-52 dropping leaflets all ove the US stating just that. The facts are though that that's more than a bit of a stretch and you really believe after hundreds of years of unrest the stars and stripes rode in on the big white horse and in only a matter of months created stability in the Middle East? I guess you still get visits from the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and Santa left all those presents under the tree. I think that's what it might say in Bushco's Campaign 2004 promo packet but in the real world that a giant load of what makes the grass grow. That goes right along with the misguided belief that we've got them all shakin' in their turbans over there just filled with fear...when anger, hatred, revenge, and rage would be a better description.

• Israel and the Palistinians are talking and not blowing each other up

I like this one too. See the thing is why waste bulletts and bombs on eachother when now you've got a whole desert full of other pissed off terrorists running around that are gonna blow stuff up and take credit for it. There's no point in attacking eachother if there's a third party that will take credit for it at the moment. We certainly have done nothing in this area to cure this mess and I find it amusing that anyone from Bushco could say they've invented a new brand of diplomacy that is now on display in Iraq that fixed the differences between Israel and all those herded out onto the Gaza Strip. Come on Dale, we're talking issues that have raged for a hell of a long time and our presence in Iraq at this point could only be seen as a distraction.

• Iraq is now free and rid of Saddam

Well, Iraq is now rid of Saddam. True, and that's a wonderful thing. Too bad we didn't take care of this back during Gulf War 1 when it should have been done. Wonder why we didn't. If we had maybe a lot more Iraqi's would not have suffered. I don't think that there was ever an argument that this guy had to go...that's never been the point...back when we installed him and Rummy was posing for photos with him, we loved the guy and armed him and sold him all the nasty goodies to kill people he wanted. All because we disliked Iran. Back then we could care less about rape rooms and other ugly crap he was into because he was against Iran. That was all we wanted then. Then we turn him into our favorite boogyman when we're done with him. My point is it's all sort of nonsense and all this stuff they are saying now is even greater nonsense. These guys make up the story as they go and sell it to us however they'd like. Here's a little note you've probably never seen before:

"The most memorable (and successful) of the ploys used was to turn President
Hussein into the man who `gassed his own Kurds' at Halabja. The same
devastating images of dead women and children lying in the streets were
shown thousands of times on all western television channels, placing
President Hussein well beyond western `rehabilitation' under any
circumstances.
          Unfortunately the entire exercise was a complete lie. The CIA knew
very well that a February 1990 US Army War College report concluded Iraq was
not responsible for the Halabja attack, stating it was the Iranian
bombardment that had actually killed the Kurds.' The War College findings
were hardly surprising: the Kurdish people of Halabja were killed by a war
gas known as "Phosgene" used by the Iranians but not the Iraqis. Though Iraq
did use war gas on the battlefield it was "Mustard", an entirely different
chemical which causes death in a visibly different way, enabling US Army
chemical warfare experts to easily identify the attack as Iranian in
origin."
http://crude.homestead.com/
reference to Halabja, Gas Attack. Iraqi Power & US Security in the Middle
East, US Army  War College,           February 1990. New York Times, Wines,
M, 28 April 1991, p.13.

You know I'm right.

I know you are sometimes just not this time. It's ok though I love you anyway...and I know I'm gonna end up buying more than the first round at this rate.