my, my. lively thread we got here.

here's two Lincoln pennies being rubbed together and tossed into the ring, regarding Gulf War 1 - should we have waited longer for Saddam to return to his territory [after apologizing to the Kuwaitis for upsetting their geraniums], is that the argument against GW1? i know (former US dumbassador) April Gillespie told him (3 days before he invaded) that we wouldn't have much in the way of a response if anything went down, but i never saw him reversing course on his own.

the idea of letting him get away with that sort of aggression - and controlling that much more of the world's oil supply - doesn't have much attraction to me. whether or not we should have 'finished the job' then and there in '91 is a whole other story, but i don't see much out of line with kicking his ass back to his own curb as the sizable world coalition did. i'm certainly not pro-war in general, gawd no, but i do get kinda anti-unchecked-aggression on occasion. including our own.

Gulf War 2 i am extremely opposed to for a number of reasons that we have yet to discuss in any depth on this site.

{whoops, that's obviously just the brake fluid talking ~~~~~~~ duuuuuhhhhhh~~~~whoa!~~~~~oooooooo~~~~]

anyway...

i don't believe that Kerry will go to [actual invasion-type] war without a solid rational backed by indisputable evidence and intel. i do believe that he will adequately go after the terror threat where it actually exists and he'll have greater success enlisting other [currently rather alienated because we all know why] countries.

i think other countries are feeling, hey, since those arrogant & dismissive cowboys went for that big one and are reaping all the spoils, then they can pay all the human and financial costs themselves. fuck 'em.

i optomistically think that with new faces performing honest and respectful diplomacy, fresh starts and greater international assistance are possible.

but i could be wrong about that, too; we're just not very popular these days. well, at least we're safer with GWB at the helm!

gosh, i sure hope that didn't come off as sarcastic or anything...in any case, DavidM is winning on this thread - i've been LOLed into a false sense of domestic security.