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Originally Posted by dksuddeth
The bottom line is this - Regime change has been US policy for over 10 years, thats back when clinton was president also, and it wasn't going to be done by continuing UN sanctions. All that would have done was allow Hussein to gather with his new european allies (france, germany) and restart his weapons programs again. It would only have been a matter of time before Israel would have had to nuke the weapons sites for their own national security and then there'd be a lot of hell to pay. I'd say we nipped that in the bud pretty well now.
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Regime change was not US policy until GWBush saw his approval rating in the toilet in 2002. Regime change was not the policy of his father GHWBush, he understood that although Hussein was a contemptible tyrant but also better than almost any feasible alternative. France and Germany were not "allies" with Iraq, they wanted to open their markets to trade--just like many American businesses. Europeans had sympathy for the Iraqis living under the U.N. trade sanctions, which we now know were completely effective in keeping Hussein from producing weapons. The sanctions were also very effective at keeping things like baby formula and medicine out of Iraq. Israel has showed no signs of attacking Iraq since 1981 when they bombed the Iraqi nuclear facilities. You honestly believe that after the 1991 gulf war in which Israel didn't retaliate for scud missle attacks that it would've unilaterally attacked Iraq without our permission?